Characters / Naruto - Akatsuki

aka: Naruto-Akatsuki

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In full part ofnote From left to right:Front Row: Sasori, Deidara, Konan, Pein, Tobi, Itachi, Kisame Back Row: Zetsu, Kakuzu, Hidan, and Orochimaru.

The Akatsuki ("sunrise" or "daybreak" note Or broken down further, "Aka" and "Tsuki" taken as two words can be translated as "red moon") is a criminal organization consisting of no more than ten S-ranked criminal ninja. (Orochimaru was once a member, but defected before the series started. He was never replaced, so the organization has nine members for the series proper.) They all seem to have their own agendas, but the primary group's goal is to Take Over the World by seeking the nine Tailed Beasts. They work in pairs, with each partner's abilities and temperament complementing the other's. Their signature costume is a high-collared, ankle-length, button-down black coat adorned with stylized red clouds, as well as broad-brimmed hats that they discard when discovered. They also wear their original shinobi headbands, but with a deep scratch across the emblem.

They mostly appear in Shippuden — only Itachi, Kisame, and Zetsu appeared in the original series at all, though the rest do appear in silhouettes. Itachi and Kisame appear in an arc that lasts ten chapters (five episodes in the anime), and Zetsu's case is merely a cameo. They become much more active in the second series as their plan to capture and seal the Tailed Beasts begins to move forward in earnest.

This page grew so large that it needed to jettison Tobi's massive entry. You can find his character sheet here. Orochimaru was once a member of Akatsuki, but defected prior to the beginning of the series. You can find his character sheet here.

Here be spoilers. Any thing that has not been aired on the free versionnote one week after the paid version of Crunchyroll should be spoiler-tagged.

Black Cloak: In addition to the coats, they also have cloaks, although only Tobi is seen wearing one.

Battle Strip: Once any of them come to their fight's climax, they remove their robe, willfully or from Clothing Damage. Every single Akatsuki member to do so dies, save for Konan, who dies without stripping.

Cosmopolitan Council: They could stand some improvement gender-wise, but when your group contains a Shark Man and a walking venus fly trap you qualify.

Dark Is Evil: One of the group's distinguishing traits is that each member wears a black cloak.

Evil Duo: They operate in teams of two, usually complementing each other's skills and personalities. Itachi (stoic, fire-user, illusionist) and Kisame (talkative, water-user, tears people up with his BFS) set the trend.

Greater Scope Villain: In Part I, they mostly wait in the shadows as Orochimaru rampages in the Leaf, but their presence and the danger they pose become evident when Itachi and Kisame first appear.

Hero Killer: Each of them is effective in dominating over the cast with their powers; Hidan and Pain/Nagato are extremely efficient, seeing as they kill Asuma and Jiraiya, respectively.

Humanoid Abomination: They were all originally going to be blatantly non-human. Even with that dropped, the most normal members of the group are the woman who can turn herself into sheets of paper and the man with magic eyes fueled by The Power of Hate.

Leitmotif: "Akatsuki", the theme which plays for the organization as a whole. Some individual members have their own, but this is the one for the group in general.

Meaningful Name: If you read the name as Red Moon, referring to Madara's Infinite Tsukuyomi plan, which would turn the moon into a giant Sharingan able to hypnotize the entire world.

Nice Hat: Elaborate straw hats cover their faces during travel. They work for reconaissance.

Oddly Small Organization: For one of the most terrifying terrorist organizations in the world, there are never more than ten official members at a time. Quality beatsquantity, as each member is capable of fighting an army, as their performance during the Fourth Shinobi World War indicates.

Sasuke's Aloof Big Brother is the Akatsuki member with the most screen time to date(not believing Tobi). He was believed to have killed his closest friend in order to gain the Mangekyo Sharingan, a more advanced form of the Sharingan with several unique abilities. He then proceeded to kill the entire Uchiha clan save Sasuke for reasons of his own, then abandoned the village to join Akatsuki.

Onscreen, he rarely moves and rarely speaks, but he's too good a fighter for even high-level ninja to take on. He was a prodigy as a child and has only gotten stronger since. He is an expert at genjutsu, is a master of the Fire-Style Techniques of his clan, and knows most of Konoha's signature jutsu, such as the Shadow Clone Jutsu; Itachi, uniquely, has demonstrated the ability to detonate his clones as an offensive technique when he no longer needs them. In addition, the Mangekyo Sharingan gives Itachi three extremely powerful but draining jutsu with which to fight: Amaterasu, a black flame hotter than the sun which can burn anything, even other flames; Tsukuyomi, a genjutsu which can bring its target to complete mental and physical collapse by tormenting them for what seems like days in just a few seconds; and Susano'o, which summons a massive ethereal warrior which can attack and defend on Itachi's behalf. The new abilities the Mangekyo gives come with a price, however. Extended use causes the user's eyesight to fade, eventually resulting in complete blindness. The only way to combat this is to create a permanent Mangekyo Sharingan by replacing the user's eyes with his brother's.

His only appearance in the original series was directly after the Chunin Exam arc, when he appeared in Konoha with his partner Kisame to capture Naruto. He and Kisame easily defeated Kurenai, Asuma, and Kakashi, but retreated rather than become involved in a general melee. When Sasuke heard his brother was in the area, he immediately rushed out to challenge him, but Itachi easily beat him and Mind Raped him in the process, further feeding Sasuke's inferiority complex. After Jiraiya chased the Akatsuki off, Itachi was ordered not to attempt to capture Naruto again until after the Time Skip.

In Shippuden, Pain creates a clone of Itachi to serve as a delaying action during the Rescue Gaara arc. Team 7 beats it, and Itachi doesn't appear again until directly prior to his fight with Sasuke, where he briefly confronts Naruto, force-feeding him a crow containing one of his friend's Sharingan before leaving to duel his brother. He claims that he left Sasuke alive because he wanted to take Sasuke's eyes for himself. However, Itachi dies from a terminal illness before he can kill Sasuke. More about his character and his relationship with Sasuke is revealed after his death.

His hobby was visiting traditional Japanese cafés.

Favorite word: "peace"

The Ace: Itachi is one of the best ninjas the Leaf has ever produced. He was the third strongest shinobi in the Akatsuki Organization (right under Nagato and Tobi). He also understands the essence of what it means to be a true shinobi. Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third God of Shinobi, even claimed he had the mindset of a Hokage when he was just seven years old.

A Day in the Limelight: The Itachi Shinden light novels, which were adapted into an arc in the anime, focus on Itachi's childhood.

Affably Evil: Always polite, offers his opponents the chance to escape (unless they are his target) and never uses more power than needed to disable, without lasting harm if possible. He is also an unrepentant mass murderer with history of mentally torturing several protagonists of the series, especially his little brother (who was 7 years old the first time, 13 the second). Subverted, since he was really Good All Along.

Aloof Big Brother: One of the Anime poster boys for this trope. Even before his family's death, he was always detached. His father remarked that Itachi wasn't good with people.

Anti-Villain: He killed his entire clan, including his family, in order to avoid civil war. Although his goals for peace are ultimately noble, his methods, which include torturing his little brother in order to strengthen him, are questionable.

Bash Brothers: He and Kisame make an excellent team, even when they aren't actually fighting alongside each other. He and Sasuke become an official pair of literal bash brothers against Kabuto during the 4th war.

Beneath the Mask: During his fight with Sasuke, he briefly lets his stoic personality slip and psychotically gives a speech about stealing Sasuke's eyes, and claims that this unhinged persona is his true self. It's subverted when you learn that Itachi was merely faking it and never intended to take Sasuke's eyes. However, post-mortem it's revealed that the aloof personality he maintained was indeed an act. What was underneath was a young man torn up by guilt. After he's revived by Kabuto, we get to see how Itachi really is, and he turns out to be a virtuous, wise, and even humorous individual.

Big Brother Mentor: Seems to be this way to Naruto when they meet during the 4th Shinobi War. He convinces Naruto to actually let others help him instead of trying to save everyone by himself, which was a flaw in Itachi's life.

Big Brother Instinct: He spared Sasuke from the Uchiha Massacre and made sure he would be safe from Danzo until the day they fought. In their battle he made sure to remove Orochimaru's influence permanently and tried to make him a hero.

Zigzagged later. In case Sasuke became a threat to Konoha, he left Shisui's ability in Naruto and planned to leave Sasuke permanently loyal to Konoha.

Big Damn Heroes: When he rescues Naruto and Killer Bee from certain death at the hands of Edo Nagato after Nagato defeated the two Jinchuriki in a Curb-Stomp Battle.

Black Sheep: He is one for the Uchiha clan, being the only one in his family who does not believe that being an Uchiha makes one superior, and eventually massacres all but one member of the clan. That last part is because he was the only Uchiha who opposed a planned hostile takeover of Konoha.

Bloodbath Villain Origin: He started on his path to villainy by killing his entire family except for Sasuke. Turns out it was a sham and he actually killed them to prevent them from staging a coup.

Break the Cutie: He witnessed and was traumatized by the Third Shinobi World War at just four years old.

Broken Ace: And yet, though he never loses a fight onscreen, we also see that he's sacrificed his family, his happiness, and his honor all for the sake of serving the village. In addition to this, after his death, almost all of his plans backfire horribly in his face, as Sasuke goes completely insane and decides to destroy Konoha. Tobi also heavily implies that the only reason he is so strong and wise is because he was so traumatized by war when he was four years old that he had no choice but to grow up quickly.

Byronic Hero: Itachi was assumed by many to be a stoic, ice-cold villain who slaughtered his clan to test the power of his Mangekyo Sharingan. Posthumously, he is revealed to be a conflicted and tragic person who took on the role of a villain to prevent a war and set up a convoluted scheme so that his brother Sasuke would kill him, put a stop to Akatsuki, and return to the Hidden Leaf a hero. It backfired.

Character Development: After he's revived. He finally acknowledges how disastrous his plans to keep Sasuke safe ended up, and acknowledges that he should have simply been honest with his younger brother.

Character Shilling: Everybody loves to point out how much of a good ninja he was, even his enemies, characters who would have valid reasons to dislike him, or characters who have only just heard of him. However it's more a praise on how he had to make a choice when it wasn't possible to get it right.

This gets especially ridiculous when the First Hokage, of all people, says that Itachi's a better shinobi than him, after simply hearing a brief description of his history. Even though Hashirama didn't seem to be serious, Hiruzen seemed serious that Itachi had 'Hokage-level reasoning skills/wisdom' at age seven. In context, they are referring to Itachi's willingness to put the village ahead of his clan, but it still rankles.

The Chessmaster: Played his own game inside Akatsuki for years. Manipulated Sasuke just the same. Subverted in that nearly everything he planned or wanted failed hideously.

Child Prodigy: At age 7, Itachi graduated from the Academy at the top of his class after only one year, mastered the Sharingan at age 8, passed the Chūnin Exams at age 10, and enrolled in the Anbu half a year later. He became Anbu Captain at 13.

Cold-Blooded Torture: Itachi mentally tortures his foes with genjutsu; among his victims are Kakashi, Naruto, and especially Sasuke. He does it as a standard fighting technique, apparently without wrath or pleasure.

Combat Clairvoyance: One of the Sharingan's abilities, allowing him to see his opponent's next physical movement based on the tension in their muscles.

Combat Compliment: While Itachi was a powerful shinobi, he showed no arrogance and often commended his opponents on their abilities.

Combat Pragmatist: Itachi tries to end fights as quickly as he can and certainly doesn't shirk away from dirty tactics.

The Comically Serious: Despite his traumatic past and the lifetime of guilt that accompanies it, he has a sense of humor, believe it or not. Pretty much the only person never thrown off by Itachi's joking is Sasuke, implying that Itachi used to be like this before the massacre (or possibly that nothing Itachi does throws him off anymore). He even joins in at one point!

[Itachi and Sasuke have just successfully double-teamed Kabuto, using an upgraded version of a move that Sasuke messed up on when he and Itachi took on a giant boar as children.]

Itachi: You could easily kill that pig now! Sasuke: Rather than the pig, I think this snake is the more pressing priority.

Consummate Liar: His life in a nutshell. There were only a handful of people who knew the real Itachi. Otherwise he fooled everyone into believing whatever role he fabricated. He acted as The Mole for the Uchiha clan, was a member of Akatsuki, was known to the world as a criminal, and had Sasuke believe he was the one-dimensional villain that slayed the Uchiha Clan.

Crazy-Prepared: The number of steps he's taken to protect Sasuke either directly or indirectly definitely qualifies him. He even has a backup plan in case Tobi survives his trap and wins Sasuke over.

Subverted in that all of his plans, though fairly well-thought out, simply don't work like he wanted them to and in some cases backfire. In particular, Sasuke ends up doing the EXACT opposite of what he wanted, the trap he set for Tobi failed, and the failsafe he left Naruto ended up being used on himself instead of Sasuke. By the end he's down to his last backup plan, which is basically "trust Naruto to fix this somehow."

Creepy Child: When he was younger nobody understood him. He was actually very conflicted between the village and the clan and his social abilities took a lot of damage as a result, especially between him and his parents.

Creepy Crows: Itachi's most identifiable jutsu are those involving the use of crows. He is able to create a large flock of them which he uses in his ninjutsu and genjutsu. This is seen primarily with his use of clones which dissolve into crows, and crows that would dissolve into shuriken for surprise attacks. Whenever his enemies strike him down, chances are he'll just turn into a bunch of crows and reveal they were in a genjutsu.

Creepy Monotone: The whole damn time, save for one instance (see Chewing the Scenery above). His voice becomes less monotonous after he is revived, since he no longer has to pretend to be emotionless.

Cruel to Be Kind: As a rogue ninja, Itachi still had to defend himself from otherwise being captured or being killed. He would warn enemy ninja not to engage him, and if they did, would put them down quickly with Tsukuyomi, keeping his partner Kisame from escalating a battle further at the same time. Kakashi doesn't realize this, but does wonder why Itachi didn't just kill him instead.

Cry Cute: He broke down into near-hysterics as he killed his parents, despite their differences in politics (to say the least). They still told him they loved him and were proud of him.

Cryptic Conversation: Pretty much everything Itachi has EVER said. After being revived as a zombie and teaming up with Sasuke to defeat Kabuto and undo the jutsu, he finally decides he's done trying to manipulate Sasuke and tells him how he really feels.

Curb-Stomp Battle: Pretty much every fight that he is actually present for, including fights that he has no interest in winning. The only exceptions are Nagato and Kabuto.

Cursed with Awesome: His Susano'o possesses the Yata Mirror, a supposedly indestructible shield, and the Sword of Totsuka, a blade that can seal away any person it pierces. The drawback is that it pretty much destroyed his eyes and put severe strain in his body. Not to mention he can't use it well or to its full extent due to how low his stamina is.

After killing off the clan, all he wanted was to die by Sasuke's hands to atone... but he's so damn strong, it takes a massive fight with him holding back and being terminally ill to actually get that done. The man is too good for his own good. Zetsu is convinced there was something seriously wrong with the guy.

Deadpan Snarker: Especially after his resurrection, since he doesn't have to pretend to be evil anymore, so his real personality is more apparent.

Defector from Decadence: In the Valley-of-the-End flashback, he expresses his disgust at how his fellow clansmen are obsessed with the Uchiha's glory and utterly full of themselves, losing sight of their actual capacities. He then proceeds to throw a kunai into the nearest Uchiha crest, and the rest is history... We later learn that he turned against them because they were planning a coup d'etat that would've plunged the entire continent into a senseless war.

Deus ex Machina: Multiple times he has pulled plot-developing jutsus or items right out of nowhere to advance the plot. Izanami, his sickness, and even his backstory seems to come straight out of nowhere.

Dirty Business: He took up the mission to eliminate the Uchiha Clan and became a rogue ninja afterwards. In doing so, he prevented Konoha being held accountable and the Uchiha's reputation being damaged because they planned a coup.

The Dragon: For Nagato as one of the Akatsuki zombies, and the both of them as Co-Dragons for Kabuto, but Itachi later escapes the latter's control.

Drama-Preserving Handicap: He was hindered by near blindness and a terminal illness during his fight with Sasuke, and was seeking to wear his brother down rather than actually kill him. The extent of how weakened he was during the fight is unknown, although Tobi explicitly states that if Itachi were serious, then Sasuke would be dead.

Easily Forgiven: By Sasuke, who went from loathing him to protecting his legacy (albeit in a way completely opposite to what Itachi wished) in the matter of a night. Also by Naruto: even though Itachi can be directly responsible for what happened with Sasuke, Naruto doesn't give him any crap.

Eldritch Location: Itachi's preferred method of using Tsukuyomi is to create a world that completely warps the perception by turning the sky red with black clouds and people monochrome.

Excuse Me While I Multitask: He is capable of doing ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijitsu, and/or shuriken jutsu simultaneously against an S-ranked opponent without any strain.

Expy: Betrayer of his village/ Nation and branded as a criminal? Former friend of a key protagonist turned enemy? Was actually a Fake Defector all along, doing what he felt was best for the village? Sounds quite similar to The Boss, don't you think?

Fake Defector: After slaying the Uchiha clan, he joined Akatsuki as a spy for Konoha.

Fallen Hero: He was the pride and joy of the Uchiha clan and Sasuke's idol before the massacre.

Fatal Flaw: Itachi himself acknowledges two major failings after he is revived.

He didn't put trust in anyone and relied solely on himself. His last gambit with Sasuke involved using Shisui's powerful eye genjutsu, stored within Naruto, to reprogram Sasuke should he turn against the village. After his revival he puts his trust with Naruto and no longer worries about his own failure to keep Sasuke away from the wrong path.

His obsession with keeping Sasuke away from the truth, as it spurs him to constantly deceive and manipulate his younger brother. As a result, Sasuke is driven towards revenge against Konoha because Sasuke sees the village made his brother suffer. Itachi corrects this flaw spending his final moment while reincarnated admitting the truth and his feelings to Sasuke.

For the Evulz: He pretty much confessed to Sasuke that the only reason he killed off the clan was to see if he could. Subverted later, when it turns out he was ordered to do it.

Freudian Excuse: His childhood was during the great ninja war and he was traumatized by it (Quote Tobi: "For a child, war is hell."), so he grew up to be a man who values peace above anything else. Above anything else. And then, you know the story. Then again, unlike some of the other Freudian Excuse-inspired villains, he was forced into the situation, albeit because Danzo knew about that part of his personality, and did not turn evil because of it. Though this still does not justify his behavior with Sasuke.

Gambit Roulette: Itachi planned to push Sasuke to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan, tell him about "Madara", and die fighting him so that the Uchiha Clan could be avenged. Sasuke was to then take his eyes to get the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, kill Madara, and return to Konoha a hero. This, of course, banked on Sasuke actually wanting to go back to Konoha instead of razing it to the ground.

The Gift: Obviously. He graduates from the Academy at age 7, masters the Sharingan at 8, becomes Chuunin at 10, joins the ANBU at 13, then defects to become an S-ranked criminal and one of the strongest members of Akatsuki. Who thinks this guy is normal?

Genius Sweet Tooth: Revealed in the filler arc about Itachi's childhood and hinted in the books it's adapted from, despite his favorite food being onigiri with cabbage and seaweed. In the case of the latter, his hobby is often visiting Japanese tea shops; in the former case, he really wanted to go for some dango with his father at some point, though it's thanks to a childhood friend of his he was pretty thankful he had some, despite earlier implications.

Genocide from the Inside: Killed off his entire clan aside from younger brother Sasuke, on orders from Konoha, to prevent their plans at a coup.

Good All Along: He does love Sasuke and Konohagakure, but he was forced to do horrible things to keep them safe.

Gone Horribly Right: He deliberately made Sasuke full of hate and power-obsessed in order to have him strong enough to kill him and redeem the Uchiha clan. The first part worked beyond any expectation, the second... not so much.

Happiness in Slavery: The ultimate fate he prepared for Sasuke, though he failed to actually implement it. He had to use Shisui's eye on himself instead after Kabuto resurrects him with Edo Tensei.

It is to be mentioned that this was meant as an ultimate last resort in case all his other backup plans failed, and that he is later shown to feel somewhat guilty about it. He outright tells Naruto "I hope you never have to use it." He just didn't want a genocide to happen because of his personal wish to let his little brother live.

Heartbroken Badass: He actually doesn't want to do the things he does, mostly he's just following orders and trying to atone for it all.

Hellfire: Amaterasu, a black flame that burns almost anything it comes into contact with.

Hero with an F in Good: Between his Mind Rapes of Sasuke and Kakashi, general brutality, and a pretty serious lack of social skills, Itachi sucks at being the good guy.

Heroic Self-Deprecation: Somewhat helps balance out the above Character Shilling. Itachi recognizes his actions as misguided and largely responsible for what Sasuke has become, and considers himself a failure.

Heroic Resolve: Due to disease, Itachi had taken medicine to prolong his life until the day he fought Sasuke. In their battle; Itachi had his thigh punctured with a shuriken, his right arm burned, his eyesight deteriorate into nothing, and coughed up blood numerous times. In the end, he succeeded in removing Orochimaru's curse seal and implanted Amaterasu within Sasuke before dying.

Hidden Agenda Villain: Since the first act it has been confusing which are his goals or if indeed he has any beyond messing with Sasuke's life. It's only revealed later that he just hoped to close the book on his actions and leave Sasuke as the hero.

I Did What I Had to Do: He killed the Uchihas on the orders of his superiors, in order to prevent his clan from starting a civil war.

I Let You Win: What he was intending to do in his last battle with Sasuke. Subverted in that he's so strong he couldn't convincingly hold back enough to let Sasuke win, so ended up kicking the crap out of Sasuke, only "losing" by dropping dead on the spot of an unrelated disease.

Interrupted Suicide: Witnessing the horrors of war and then being told there's no meaning in life by Orochimaru drove a four year-old Itachi to throw himself off a cliff, before a passing murder of crows brought him to his senses.

I Regret Nothing: As he puts a stop to the Edo Tensei, he proclaims as Itachi Uchiha of Kohoha, he's happy to have been able to help the village again, and trusting Naruto to save Sasuke from the wrong path.

Ill Boy: He contracted a terminal combination of Incurable Cough of Death and Soap Opera Disease, and would have died from it by Part II had he not been taking medication to prolong his life so that Sasuke could kill him. Whether this was the result or origin of his lackluster stamina is not known.

Informed Attribute: Allegedly, at the age of seven he had Hokage-level skills of reasoning and wisdom. Let's just say that his actions don't lend themselves well to this claim (though one could compare his failings to that of the Second Hokage).

Innocent Prodigy: During Kurama's attack on Kononha, Itachi (then five) calmly comforted the crying Sasuke (who was only a few months old) and assured him that he would keep him safe no matter what. His inner-monologue, however, reveals a rather frightened child wishing their parents would hurry and get home.

He was so advanced during his time in the academy that one teacher mentions having to do very little work with him. He still put off doing his homework in favor of playing games with Sasuke, even with their mother wanting him to study.

It's All About Me: He doesn't hardline this trope like the rest of his family does, but the reason he let Sasuke live and mind raped Sasuke repeatedly by forcing him to repeatedly relive the gruesome deaths of their parents, forcing him to grow up into a bitter obsessive lunatic all so that Itachi could die on his own terms: At Sasuke's hands (which he didn't in the end, making all of his efforts totally meaningless).

Japanese Mythology: All of his special abilities, like many of the Uchiha Clan's techniques, are named after Japanese gods.

Kill the Ones You Love: Itachi was forced to kill his girlfriend, mother, and father during the Uchiha Clan Massacre. The only person he spared was his younger brother.

Knight Templar Big Brother: Had decided on his own what was best for Sasuke. Sasuke will become a great warrior. Sasuke will avenge the Uchiha. Sasuke will become a hero, and putting him through horrible torture, forcing him to walk the path of rage and hate, and making him a criminal is just a small price to pay. He left Shisui's eye to Mind Rape Sasuke should he try to destroy Konoha. However, after his resurrection Itachi realizes he was beyond wrong in his methods and reasoning and unbelievably selfish. He realizes he should have believed in Sasuke and trusted him instead of trying to decide his destiny.

Know When To Fold Them: He's fairly confident he and Kisame can defeat Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai but retreats when Guy joins the fray, since it's only a matter of time before more Leaf jonin arrive. And he didn't even try to fight Jiraiya; as soon as the sage got serious, they bolted.

Lock and Load Montage: An anime-only scene of him getting ready to slaughter the Uchiha clan can certainly be viewed this way.

Magical Eye: Like many Uchiha, Itachi possesses the Sharingan, and he awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan by witnessing his best friend's suicide.

Manly Tears: The night of the Massacre when he ran from Sasuke having attempted to kill him.

He also wept in grief when he had to murder his parents.

Master of Illusion: One of the best genjutsu users in the manga. The only exceptions are Shisui, Madara Uchiha himself, Tobi, and the Second Mizukage.

Master Swordsman: We only see him using a sword a few times (deflecting kunai thrown by Sasuke and cutting off Kabuto's horn) but it's clear he's incredibly skilled with the blade, as expected of an ANBU member. It also seems that he used his sword extensively when he killed off the Uchiha Clan. After relinquishing his ANBU gear, his skills carry over to his usage of kunai in close proximity combat. He also gets to wield Sasuke's sword during the brothers' fight against Kabuto, utilizing it to great effect.

Meaningful Echo: Throughout their childhood, when Sasuke would ask Itachi to train with him, Itachi would poke his forehead and say something along the lines of "Sorry, Sasuke, next time." The last thing he does before dying is to poke Sasuke's forehead and say "Sorry, Sasuke, there won't be a next time." It's heart wrenching.

Then, as he is released by Edo Tensei, he seems poised to poke Sasuke's forehead again... and then he reaches back towards his neck, and their foreheads meet.

Itachi: "You never have to forgive me. No matter what happens to you from here on out, I will always love you."

Mega Manning: Averted. The Sharingan gives him this, but we never saw him using this ability, though we don't honestly know if some of his heightened abilities stem from using this power at one point or another. The water technique he uses against Kakashi was more than likely learned this way.

Mind Rape: His go-to strategy, especially where Sasuke is involved, which horribly backfired several times.

Morality Chain: Itachi's existence notably keeps Sasuke's sanity anchored to this world. Back when Itachi was alive, Sasuke may have been angsty, but not insane. After he killed Itachi was when he began to lose it, but, now that Itachi is... "alive" again, Sasuke was acting far more sane than he had in 100 chapters. And after Itachi goes back to being dead (as a result of ending the technique that revived him), he's right back to talking about destroying Konoha...

My Country, Right or Wrong: As Itachi put it himself: "The village does have its dark side and inconsistencies. But I'm still the Leaf's Itachi Uchiha."

My God, What Have I Done?: Learning of how Sasuke has become hellbent on revenge on the Leaf village due to his own well meaning yet misguided actions towards him.

Necessarily Evil: He certainly viewed his actions and himself this way, though, and hated himself for it. Then, after his resurrection, he realizes how horribly wrong he was.

The Needs of the Many: He thought more highly of the village as a whole than clans keeping their individualized mindset. When he spoke out against his father concerning this, his father only thought of it as more strange behavior. As a result, he massacred his clan to prevent them from starting a civil war with Konoha and possibly a world war because other countries would attack if they saw weakness.

Nerves of Steel: Itachi lived his life as a spy within Akatsuki and maintained his façade despite not being anything like the other members. He was so good Nagato was surprised how good he was.

New Powers as the Plot Demands: He's an Uchiha, so you gotta expect it. The biggest example would have to be Izanami, the purpose of which is incredibly contrived and wouldn't have worked on anyone except than the person Itachi was fighting at the time.

Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He placed Sasuke on the path for revenge, only to shield him from the truth of the coup, but ending up making things worse once Sasuke found out about it and the added burden Itachi carried.

Itachi does help steer Sasuke away from outright wanting to destroy Konoha once he's honest with him about his life and feelings, but still left trust in Naruto to save Sasuke completely.

Jacob Marley Warning: What Itachi was saying when he warned Naruto not to take on everything by himself, or he'll risk ending up like madara and himself.

No Social Skills Possibly a subversion, as after he's resurrected, he turns out to be good with advice and actually pretty funny. His lack of social skills may have just been a part of his act.

Not So Stoic: During his final fight with Sasuke. Subverted in that it was actually fake. Turns out, he was crying hysterically when he killed their parents, so much so that they actually had to encourage him to go through with it.

A filler episode taking place in part one has Team 7 go through hell fighting their way through a city of ninja cats, then against their leader Nekomata in order to get his pawprint. At the end of the episode it's revealed that Itachi, when he was about six years old, decimated the entire ninja-cat army and Nekomata himself with apparently no difficulty whatsoever.

Once the truth is learned, the entire Uchiha massacre could be seen this way given that we're only shown tiny bits of it.

Oh Crap!: His (fake) reaction to Kirin during his final fight with Sasuke and to Sage Mode Dragon Kabuto.

One Dialogue, Two Conversations: When the Uchiha police question Itachi about Shisui's death, Itachi rants at them and his father for being simple-minded. They aren't able to understand and Fugaku sees it as strange behavior. At first glance, it looks like Itachi is speaking of achieving new heights in ability because he sees the Uchiha clan as weak in strength. After The Reveal, he was actually criticising them for their betrayal against the village.

Itachi: You hold on to your organization, your clan, your name... These things limit us and limit our capacities... These things deserve to be shunned... It is foolish to fear what we've yet to see and know. Fugaku: Stop, Itachi! Stop it, already. What in the world is wrong? Itachi, you've been acting strange lately. Itachi: Nothing's strange. I'm just carrying out my duty. Fugaku: Then.. why did you not come last night? Itachi: ...In order to reach the height. Fugaku: The what? Itachi: Of my capacity. I've lost all hope for this pathetic clan. You forget what is most important to you because you cling to something small like your clan. True change cannot be made if it is bound by laws and limitations, predictions and imagination. Fugaku: What arrogance!

Only Sane Man: He together Kisame and Konan make up this as part of the Akatsuki. That says a lot.

Parental Favoritism: Fugaku spent much of his time focusing on the development of Itachi and little time with Sasuke. This had more to do with Itachi being the eldest and one day required to assume leadership of the clan, and at the time Itachi was The Mole for the Uchiha against Konoha.

Playing with Fire: The Uchiha specialize in Fire-style ninjutsu, the most basic of which is a fireball as big as a house and strong enough to plow a furrow in the ground.

Power Degeneration: The Mangekyo Sharingan degraded his eyesight to the point he could only see Sasuke as a blur at some points in their fight.

Puppy Love: Itachi Shinden reveals that Itachi did have a girlfriend, Izumi Uchiha,who he killed first, using his Tsukuyomi to ease her passing with a vision of them growing old together.

Proud Warrior Race Guy: Deconstructed. He annihilates the entire Uchiha Clan, his own family, apparently For the Evulz. His actual reason was because they were about to go forward with their betrayal of Konoha, which would have led to civil war and potentially another shinobi war. He also antagonises and tortures his pre-teen little brother into hating him and casts himself as the vile traitor so that one day his brother will be led to kill him, all to tie up everything and making everybody believe that the Uchiha Clan, save for him, were a proud and noble clan devoted to Konoha, when he knew fully well that he was the only one left in the clan that was actually like that.

Quick Draw: Shuriken flavor. Capable of throwing dozens of shuriken with perfect accuracy in seconds without any effort.

Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: His Mangekyo Sharingan powers are named after the three main Shinto kami. Of note is that his battle with Orochimaru using Susanoo strongly paralleled the myth where Susanoo slew the Orochi.

The Reveal: Being under orders from the village to slay the Uchiha clan was a surprising revelation and also shifted Sasuke's revenge motives to destroying the Leaf Village.

Sadistic Choice: He had to side with either his clan or the village, basically summed up by Danzo, the main benefit being keeping his brother safe should he side with the village. He chose the village and thus the Uchiha Massacre.

Sanity Slippage: Displays it during his fight against Sasuke, when he explains his desire to steal the younger Uchiha's eyes, and surpass Madara. It's later revealed that Itachi was faking it, and intentionally invoked the trope in order to provide Sasuke with further motivation.

Secretly Dying: He was "plagued" by an unnamed terminal illness for an unspecified amount of time before it finally killed him, meaning he may have been slowly dying since before the series even started.

Self-Made Orphan: He killed his clan to prevent them from starting a civil war with the village.

Shell-Shocked Veteran: His father took him to a Third Ninja War battlefield when he was four years old. Itachi spotted a wounded enemy ninja and gave him water, only to be forced to finish him off when the ninja suddenly attacked him. One could trace many of Itachi's neurosis and problems from having seen the devastation of warfare at such a young age.

Shoot the Dog: He went through with the Uchiha Massacre to avoid the potential world war the Uchiha would create and the countless lives that would be lost with it.

So Proud of You: Right before his death, Fugaku bluntly told Itachi that no matter what, he was proud of him.

Spanner in the Works: Itachi foils or complicates the plans of pretty much every single organization or chessmaster he encounters in the series. Short list: the Uchiha clan, Danzo, Orochimaru, Team 7's attempts to rehabilitate Sasuke, Tobi, and Kabuto. Sadly, this includes a few of his own plans too — needlessly pushing an already vengeance-minded Sasuke over the edge and accidentally triggering his own failsafe in Naruto on himself. He further complicates Kabuto's plans by intending to force him to end the Edo Tensei, and seemingly puts a cork in Sasuke's Kill Konoha plan by promising to finally explain his motivations in exchange for his help in stopping Kabuto.

Stepford Smiler: Acting like a kind and gentle boy to hide his plan to murder his clan pretty much for the heck of it. Although his mask started to slip quite a bit after Shisui died. Later revealed that he was kind and gentle but smiled to hide his despair at knowing he had no choice but to kill the people he loved. His attitude changed after Shisui's death because he was legitimately mourning his best friend.

The Stoic: He never shows emotion unless he either is faking it or is an Edo Tensei zombie.

Story-Breaker Power: His genjutsu was so powerful he could Mind Control others without making eye contact with them. An exaggerated portion of the anime is spent detailing how the main character learned how to counter this kind of technique, only for it to be revealed that Itachi's version can't be countered the normal way. And that's before he brings out his trump card which just happens to be equipped with a shield that can counter almost any attack, and a sword which can trap the victim in a world of eternal drunken dreams!

The Strategist: So good that all his fights degrade into well-oiled choreographs eventually.

Suicide by Cop: Subverted. He kept himself alive despite being eaten up with disease so that 1) Sasuke could kill him, become a hero for Konoha and redeem their clan, and 2) to punish himself for his sins. Ultimately, he died from by a combination of his disease and fighting Sasuke.

Super Speed: Has been noted for making hand signs so fast that Kakashi can't keep track.

Survivor Guilt: He spared Sasuke from the Massacre because he loved his little brother and also to be judged and defeated by Sasuke's hand since he believed only an Uchiha should pass justice.

Sympathetic Murder Backstory: The Uchiha Clan Massacre wasn't for his villainous motives but revealed to have been done to prevent a civil war that quite likely would have triggered the 4th Great Ninja War, and Itachi was greatly conflicted by his actions.

Sympathy for the Devil: Towards Kabuto. He empathizes with Kabuto because they both lived their lives as spies and acted like people they were not. Because Kabuto grew obsessed with becoming like others, Itachi casts Izanami on Kabuto to trap him in a mental loop until he can accept his own identity and stop trying to be someone else. It seems to work, as Kabuto shows up to help Sasuke later on, giving up on acquiring the Uchiha's power.

Tantrum Throwing: When his father and three other policemen start to lecture him about the importance of the clan (immediately after he's been accused of murdering Shisui), he hurls a kunai at one of the crests painted on a nearby wall, then goes off on a rant about how useless and limiting concepts like clans are.

Teach Him Anger: And Hate, in order to push Sasuke into awakening his Mangekyo Sharingan and avenging the Uchiha Clan. He Mind Rapes Sasuke twice with a heavy dose of trauma and encourages him to develop an obsession with power so the latter could become a loyal shinobi of Konoha and redeemer of the Uchiha Clan... yeah.

Technical Pacifist: After the Third Shinobi World War, he became a pacifist above all else. His slaughter of the Uchiha clan was to prevent them from throwing Konoha into chaos and starting another war. He's one of the least violent fighters, only ever using enough power to accomplish his ultimate goals, of which just victory is a rare one...

Thanatos Gambit: Itachi planned to push Sasuke to awaken his Mangekyo Sharingan, then get him to take his eyes to attain the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and kill Tobi - who he believed to be Madara Uchiha - and return to Konoha a hero. He had an emergency plan to stop Tobi from manipulating Sasuke by implanting an Amaterasu in his brother that would be triggered at the sight of Tobi's Sharingan. It failed. However, Itachi had a backup plan since he knew there would inevitably be a confrontation between his brother and Naruto. His backup plan was to brainwash Sasuke permanently to be loyal to Konoha forever with Shisui's eye that he implanted in Naruto with a crow, which would activate during their fight. However, the one thing he did not count on was being resurrected and turned into a thrall by Kabuto. The power he gave Naruto is used on himself, which allows him to break Kabuto's geas with another. His Plan C is apparently "trustNaruto."

Tough Love: In the most extreme and twisted way possible. He comes to regret it later.

Tragic Villain: His love for his village and family tore him apart when he was forced to pick a side, and he was shaped into a villain in order to bear the responsibility and safety of his brother.

Traumatic Superpower Awakening: When he was eight, he witnessed his teammate Tenma Izumi be killed by Tobi, which awakened his Sharingan at the two tomoe stage. Years later, seeing Shisui commit suicide awakened his Mangekyou Sharingan.

Undying Loyalty: Uchiha Itachi will never betray Konoha, not even after death.

The Unfavourite: Subverted with his mother. Despite having become distant and little to no interaction taking place between them, the night she was killed by Itachi, she still told him she loved him and to look after Sasuke.

The Unfettered: He will do anything to protect Sasuke and the Land of Fire.

Subverted later. Not with the Land of Fire but he deemed Sasuke's free will an acceptable sacrifice, after realizing that his brother may have fallen too far to save.

Unwitting Pawn: Ultimately was this to Tobi. Itachi believed, like almost everyone else who was confronted by him, that Tobi was Madara, and despite his efforts to act in defiance, all of his failsafes to protect Sasuke from Tobi failed and he only succeeded in making Sasuke into a more powerful and hateful pawn for Tobi to manipulate.

Villainous Friendship: With Kisame. Par for the course for Akatsuki, who generally go about their grim business in pairs. This is given some depth in the two understanding each other, both being men lost without knowledge of their true selves, unable to forgive and acknowledge themselves. Itachi wants nothing more than death, Kisame wants his world of truth. Both live with the pain of having betrayed and killed their comrades. Later on he strikes up quite the rapport with Nagato, whom he helps about the battlefield as they involuntarily serve Kabuto.

Vocal Dissonance: In the Japanese version, his deep voice is initially a bit off-putting. The English dub gives him a higher-sounding, yet still fairly low voice.

War Is Hell: His real motivation for killing off his clan. They were on the verge of starting a civil war (that would likely lead to a world war) and he was unable to convince them to call it off.

Warrior Therapist: In a very odd way to Kabuto. Kabuto's arrogance, unwavering faith in his own abilities and belief he cannot fail and handle everything himself reminds Itachi of himself. Itachi was unable to let go of the selfish belief that he could shoulder every burden, which ended up making things far worse than if he hadn't tried at all. As a result, even though he knows what Kabuto is doing is wrong, Itachi wants to save Kabuto from the lies he tells himself, even if the methods he usesare a mite unconventional.

Was It All a Lie?: Yes and no, depending on which "it" is being referred to. The insane, unrepentant murderer we first meet? Yeah, that's a huge lie. The loving (if extreme) brother Sasuke remembers? No, it wasn't.

What the Hell, Hero?: When they meet during the 4th Shinobi War, Sasuke tries to do this to him, trying to understand his brother. Due to Itachi both being in a hurry to stop Kabuto and feeling it's in Naruto's hands now to save him, Itachi keeps shutting Sasuke down with curt yet vague replies. Once Kabuto is stopped, Itachi finally explains himself and understands he was wrong. Not requiring Sasuke's forgiveness, he still reassures his love for his brother.

Wise Beyond His Years: Itachi was 18-21 during his role in the series and he is shown to have wisdom and maturity extending well beyond his age, even in scenes focusing on his past childhood. It is revealed late in the series that this is a result of witnessing the brutal effects of the Shinobi World War when he was only four years old and causing him to become a pacifist. Searching for a way for peace, he studied the ancient history of not only his home village but the entire world, which allowed him to garner the mindset and wisdom expected of a Hokage by the age of 7. Through this and the teachings of his best friend, Shisui Uchiha, he understands what it truly means to be a shinobi, being able to bear disgrace and hatred in the place of honor and love should it be necessary to further the greater good. Another example is his lecturing of his father and his fellow clansmen about the potential deceptions that are judging solely based on appearances and preconceptions, at the same time surreptitiously advising the Uchiha to rethink their plans at a coup towards the village, being one of the very few of his people not bound by the clan's individual mindset, and ultimately having to wipe them out to prevent another potential large-scale war due to his prioritizing his village as a whole. At that point he was still only 13.

Deconstructed at the same time. Despite having a much greater understanding of what was needed to be done and a desire for peace, this intellectual isolation led to him gaining the attitude of having to do everything by himself. This inabiity to trust others became his Fatal Flaw and despite utilizing his intelligence and wisdom in several back-up plans, they all failed and fell apart due to his inability to trust others. After his resurrection, he fully acknowledges his folly and entrusts Naruto to help bring Sasuke from his abyss of insanity and hatred.

Worf Had the Flu: Subverted. He couldn't fight Sasuke at full force for two reasons: 1) he didn't want to, and 2) he was terminally ill.

Would Hurt a Child: Although it was for a noble cause, his beatings and mind-rapes on Sasuke still qualify him as this. Also Danzo implied that their were other children besides Sasuke in the clan which would most likely mean he would have had to have killed them too.

Xanatos Gambit: Attempts one. He tried to setup things so that no matter what happened after his death, Sasuke would end up returning to Konoha as hero. It backfires massively due to Tobi's interference.

You Are What You Hate: Vividly believed this at one point in his life, but then forgave and accepted himself for who he was and acknowledged his mistakes in death. His own experience with self hatred and forgiveness caused him to see the error in Kabuto's ways, which motivated him to help Kabuto learn his mistakes.

Zero-Approval Gambit: He massacred his clan (except his little brother) in order to prevent a coup d'etat that would've led to war, taking on the blame for himself to prevent it leaking that the village elders ordered him to do it and thus prevent Sasuke from hating the village.

Kisame Hoshigaki

Kisame Hoshigaki

A former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, Kisame is a polite, but a savage warrior who loves to fight. He is partners and good friends with Itachi, and owns a sentient sword called Samehada ("Sharkskin" in the dub and as a rough translation) which can absorb chakra from anything it shaves, and can fuse with him to transform him into an anthropomorphic shark. He also possesses an enormous amount of chakra that is compared to the level of a tailed beast.

In Shippuden, a clone of his is beaten by Guy, then he doesn't do too much but hang around Itachi. He later gets assigned to go after the Eight-Tailed Ox and seemingly gets killed for his troubles. It is later revealed that was just a clone and Kisame manages to infiltrate Kumogakure by hiding in his sword. His cover ends up blown and he fights Guy again, but rather than give up the information upon losing he commits suicide by having his own shark summons eat him. It was revealed that Kisame was Tobi's Psycho Supporter since before his days as a member of the Seven Swordsmen, and served as the personal bodyguard of the Fourth Mizukage, who was Tobi's puppet.

His hobby was taking care of his sword, Samehada.

Favorite phrase: "The weak are meat, the strong eat", a Japanese idiom for survival of the fittest.

Affably Evil: Cheerful, polite, and always pleased to make the acquaintance of someone new. Like Itachi, he'll also give opponents the chance to back down, which makes him very different from most of his teammates, who can be anywhere from naturally cruel to just plain genocidal.

Alas, Poor Villain: He's given this after killing himself to prevent revealing anymore information.

Blood Knight: Kisame is a rare mix of this and Affably Evil: he may be polite, but he also has a great love of fighting and mutilating his opponents. When he was told that he needed to capture Naruto alive, he suggested cutting off his legs so he couldn't get away and would be easier to carry. While the databooks mention who characters want to fight, his entry says "anyone". And all this despite his role being an espionage agent

Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Inverted. He is loyal enough to his partner Itachi and Akatsuki, and fanatically devoted to Tobi. However, while he was a Mist-nin he had an even more severe case of this, slaughtering his allies at the drop of a hat and murdering his superior who is implied to have been his mentor, although this was out of loyalty to the village.

Crazy-Prepared: In his final battle, he demonstrated this trait. After preparing a scroll containing vital intel, he was found out by enemies and attempted to flee. Knowing he couldn't escape, he summoned a shark to carry the message, only to be intercepted. So he summoned a few hundred spares to distract the enemy before personally launching a massive attack. When all of that failed and he was captured, he had his own summons kill him, ending the threat... until his intel scroll turned out to be a trap that held his enemies still while a new shark summon made a run for it with the intel.

Cyanide Pill: Instead of getting captured, he opted for suicide so as to not give any information he may hold to the enemy.

Dirty Business: Constructed around this. His job in the Mist? Murder of other Mist ninja.

The Dragon: Becomes this to Tobi and replaces Pain's position as the Dragon of Tobi and with Zetsu as Co-Dragons.

Dying Moment of Awesome: He bit through his tongue, trapped himself in a water prison, and summoned three sharks which he let eat him alive so that he wouldn't divulge any information on Akatsuki to the good guys.

Empathic Weapon: Samehada's hilt will sprout spikes if anyone other than Kisame picks it up. It can also return to his hand. It turns out to be a living, sentient sword with a toothy mouth. When Kisame commits suicide, Samehada begins crying out for its master in mourning, despite it choosing to side with Killer B because it liked the taste of his powerful chakra to the point it got greedy and selfish enough to betray Kisame and make its master force it back under control until his death.

Energy Absorption: His sword lets him absorb the chakra of anyone it touches, or of any technique that launches into the air.

It later turns out several of his jutsu allow him to absorb chakra even without Samehada's help.

Exact Words: He was ordered to protect an Intel squad carrying important codes, and above all to prevent those codes from falling into enemy hands. At the first sign of trouble, he massacres the squad, so they can't tell anyone the codes they are protecting. His attitude at the time suggests he was actually hoping they would be attacked just so he could do this, which would mean he did it For the Evulz.

Faking the Dead: After his original seeming death by decapitation, it was revealed several months later that what actually died was a clone created by Zetsu.

Hungry Weapon: Samehada can absorb chakra and use it to add to Kisame's own

Irony: He originally joined Tobi because he desired a world of no lies, the irony of this being that the Moon's Eye Plan would in fact create a world made up of nothing but lies.

Also his hatred of lies makes his seemingly genuine friendship with Itachi a little awkward, as Itachi was one of the biggest liars in Akatsuki.

Taken further still when it's revealed that even the "Madara" he believed in and followed so devotedly was yet another mask and a lie. And even this lie was being manipulated by the lies of Black Zetsu.

Keigo: Always talks in polite speech in the Japanese, something no other Akatsuki member does.

Klingon Promotion: How he became a member of the Seven Swordsman. Over his mentor's corpse.

Lightning Bruiser: Terrifyingly fast, and strong enough to trade blows with Guy without any real difficulty.

Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Kisame ultimately fails to subdue Killer B because he spammed Samehada's chakra absorbing ability to the point that it loved Killer B's chakra and chose him as it's new master.

Noble Demon: He died as one remaining loyal to Akatsuki's goal of achieving the Moon's Eye Plan, that he desperately wanted to see.

Not-So-Small Role: For a long time he was just considered as The Brute and Itachi's sidekick. In the end, he was the last member of Akatsuki (except for Zetsu) to be taken down, dying after Itachi and even Nagato and Konan. He also turned out to be just as close to Tobi as Itachi was before he left Konoha, apparently.

Off with His Head!: When the clone of Kisame goes up against the Raikage and Killer B, he gets struck with the manliest move ever used in the Naruto universe. His head flies off like a champagne cork.

Shark Man: For some reason that is never explained. Judging by his mentor, fish people might just be a thing in the Mist.

Straw Nihilist: He believes the world is based on nothing but lies, so he has no particular reason to trust or be loyal to anyone. He only follows Tobi because the latter agrees, because he appears to validate his opinions (for example, by the revelation that he was controlling the 4th Mizukage, thus showing that the Mist was based on a lie and not run by the man everyone was following), and because Kisame believes him when he says he can change all that.

Thanatos Gambit / Taking You with Me: The scroll he stole back and made Guy fight so hard for... was booby trapped. As soon as it was opened it sealed everyone within range with the Water Prison Technique, complete with shark summonings in each individual prison, while one of the summonings takes the scroll to Tobi.

Unknown Rival: Guy has a hard time remembering just who Kisame is for Kisame's whole life.

Utopia Justifies the Means: He became a member of Akatsuki because he really wanted to see a world of no lies that Tobi's Moon's Eye Plan offered.

Villainous Friendship: Compared to most of Akatsuki's other teams, which involve hostile relationships between partners, Kisame and Itachi get along quite well. While they were hostile when they first met, Kisame displays genuine concern for Itachi. In fact, other than the aforementioned meeting, they are never shown to argue at all, and that argument was quite civilized and only turned nasty when Kisame drew Samahada. Kisame's last words are even directed at Itachi! Their friendship is actually quite sweet. It is later revealed that both share a common burden of killing comrades for the common good. Both of them were men lost in their own contradiction and unable to know their true identity. In the anime, Kisame is well aware of Itachi's true nature and bis him a fond farewell when Itachi goes to die against Sasuke.

Villainous Valour: Kisame may be Blood Knight kidnapper that thinks nothing of cutting limbs off Jinchuuriki so they can't get away, but when he backed into a corner, rather than let his enemies forcibly read his mind, he bites off his own tongue to end the mind reading, and commits suicide and all in order to not give any information he may hold to the enemy.

Worthy Opponent: To Guy (ironic in that the latter never remembers him until his death).

White Zetsu

"Well, to say it simply… He wants to get rid of all the bad things in the world and run away to a dreamland full of good things! In a dream, you can do whatever you want… even revive the dead."

Zetsu is a strange plant-like being created from the First Hokage's DNA that serves as Akatsuki's spy, lookout, and corpse disposal. He possesses Literal Split Personalities that talk to each other, and was the only Akatsuki member who is never shown with a partner, because he can be his own partner. He can perfectly blend into the background (sometimes by use of a Venus flytrap thing). He is capable of recording events, such as Naruto and Sasuke's fight at the Valley of the End and Sasuke and Itachi's final battle, for others to view.

Zetsu knows Tobi's identity and status as the true leader of Akatsuki, and thus works closely with him. He showed ability to split his two sides apart, and had his white side lead Sasuke to the Kage summit while the black side stayed behind with Tobi. The white half interrupted meeting and revealed that Sasuke was in the building, after which the Raikage strangled him until he lost consciousness.

White Zetsu managed to escape the summit and healed the wounds Sasuke had received in his battles with Danzo, Kakashi and Naruto. Both halves appeared to be looking for Kisame's dead body, only to reveal that the body was just a White Zetsu clone, which was created so Kisame could infiltrate Kumogakure. During the Fourth Great Shinobi World War, Zetsu is the main source of Tobi's army. It is eventually discovered by Sakura that White Zetsu was created using the 1st Hokage's DNA. Black Zetsu was defeated by Naruto and the Mizukage's squad while attempting to assassinate the daimyos, while White Zetsu was killed by Sasuke Uchiha in order to test out his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. During Tobi's flashback arc, it is revealed that White Zetsu was one of numerous prototypes created by Madara Uchiha using Hashirama Senju's DNA and served as Obito's bodyguard during his recovery. One of these was a Spiral Zetsu with a quirkish personality and a face that inspired Tobi to don his spiral-patterned mask. The "main" Zetsu was one specifically chosen by Madara to contain his "will." Madara, just before he died, inserted his "will" into half of this Zetsu, forming the black half of his body.

His hobby is observing unique shinobi.

Favorite phrase: "Independence unbending" which means "The only one you can count on is yourself".

Ancient Conspiracy: In Naruto Gaiden, Sasuke learns that the White Zetsu army was created a very long time ago, even before the ninjas existed. Leading to the fact that whoever created them is probably another enemy of Kaguya's level or stronger somewhere in the world. Later, it turns out they really were created by Kaguya, but only so she would stand a chance against the stronger foe.

Artificial Human: One of an army of artificial soldiers created from the cells of the First Hokage or so we were led to believe.

The Dragon: To Tobi. He's been working with Tobi much longer than most of Akatsuki. Ironic, given Tobi's first appearance made him look like Zetsu's underling, but it possibly was to cover him. And also Co-Dragons with Pain and Kisame before their deaths.

White Zetsu clones are this to Madara as well. One did bring back his Rinnegan after all, as well as providing a spare arm...

Early-Bird Cameo: He first appeared after the climax of Naruto and Sasuke's duel, noting that he found the fight interesting.

Hive Mind: The White Zetsu Clones all share one mind that they link through a system of underground roots; once linked they instantly share information with each other. Although the original has his own, singular mind.

Ancient Conspiracy: Ever since the time of the Sage and his sons, this guy has been meddling with events behind the scenes to ensure Kaguya's revival.

And I Must Scream: Even worse than Hidan. Black Zetsu's ultimate fate is to be pinned against the new moon where Kaguya was sealed, within her personal dimension. Add that he appears incapable of aging. He's going to be trapped in a pocket dimension with his failure, forever.

Breaking Speech: Tries to give one to Naruto in his weakened state. Naruto responds that he neither owns nor created ninja history and that someone who has to cling to his mother (Kaguya) isn't much of a ninja to begin with, before punching him into the sealing moon.

Brains and Brawn: When Kaguya comes into the picture to fight, Black Zetsu uses his intelligence to compliment her immense strength and making up for her... lacking tactical abilities.

The Bus Came Back: After the defeat Obito is about to use Rinne Tensei, doing the same thing that Nagato did, Black Zetsu appears from the ground and forces him to revive Madara instead.

Characterization Marches On: Before the start of the Final Arc, Black Zetsu is shown to be a loyal servant of Obito Uchiha as shown in several scenes before along with him apologizing to Obito when he is forced to use Rinne Tensei on Madara. But once the Final Arc kicks in, he is shown to as callous as Madara and berates Obito for ever daring to betray Madara's plans. This even culminates in him betraying Madara and Retcon him from a will of him into a will of Kaguya, with no foreshadowing whatsoever.

Chekhov's Skill: How Black Zetsu was able to get to the final battle field becomes important when he uses the same ability to steal the other half of Kurama.

The Chessmaster: Black Zetsu rewrote the text that Hagoromo left on the Uchiha's stone monument, turning the Uchiha into his pawns. Furthermore, he manipulated countless individuals throughout the centuries all for his ends. He started with manipulating Indra from the start and began all the way since.

Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He betrayed gigantic number of people for the implementation of his plan but the most recent examples this Obito whom he forced fully to resurrect Madara and himself Madara whom he brutally murders to use as fodder for Kaguya's resurrection. She appears to be the one and only person he's loyal to.

The Corrupter: He convinced Haguromo's son Indra to turn against his own family after his brother Ashura was declared the successor and was already a large influence on him beforehand. He would continue to do the same to Indra's descendants, the Uchiha clan.

The Dog Was the Mastermind: Initially seen a just a insignificant henchman throughout the story. When really he's been manipulating practically everything through it.

The Dragon: At first is seemingly this for Tobi later for Madara, but is eventually revealed to be this for Kaguya.

Dragon-in-Chief: A genius planner and devoted minion, Kaguya required him to enact the plans necessary to ready her return. Even after she regains her original form, Black Zetsu has to handle most of the planning, with her having barely any idea how to strategize against the heroes without him.As if to prove this stance further after the heroes succeed in sealing Kaguya away Naruto makes sure to hunt Black Zetsu down and seal him in the new moon as well in order to prevent him from resurrecting Kaguya at a later point and to end her threat once and for all.

Evil Plan: Black Zetsu unleashed a whopper that spiralled into many other conflicts and bled into so much misery for others. A plan that duped Indra, Madara, Hashirama, Tobirama, Obito, Kakashi, Kabuto, Sasuke, the entire Uchiha clan, and countless others into becoming his pawns to revive Kaguya. It also resulted in the death of Rin, the death of Naruto's parents, the creation of Akatsuki, Orochimaru's nefarious schemes with Akatsuki, the Uchiha Massacre, Sasuke's defection, Madara and Obito's own gambits, Gaara's temporary death, the deaths of all active Akatsuki members, the birth of the army of White Zetsus among others who had been absorbed into Kaguya, the revival of the Ten-Tails, the controlling of said beast, the revival and subsequent murder of Madara, the enslavement of all humanity, and on top of all this, Kaguya's return to life.

Gambit Roulette: He's been manipulating the Senju and Uchiha clans to revive Kaguya since before they were founded, and it's all gone off without a hitch.

Greater Scope Villain: He kickstarted the entire generational conflict that began with Hagoromo's sons, jumped to Madara and Hashirama, then Naruto and Sasuke. Every conflict and casualty from the warring clans era to the modern village wars and Akatsuki can be traced back to his constant manipulation of the world.

Hypocrite: He mocks Obito and calls him trash due to in order that the he betrayed all people around him at some point. However Black Zetsu himself betrayed gigantic number of people for the implementation of his plan and in fact he has no right call someone a traitor being most big a traitor in history.

Ironic Hell: All he wanted was to resurrect his mother and be with her forever. Naruto makes sure he gets just what he wanted by nailing him, immobilized, to the moon in her personal dimension where she's sealed.

The Man in Front of the Man: Most of the time he seemed only The Dragon for Madara, imagine how Madara and all the spectators were surprised when he showed that he manipulated Madara all this time for the revival its creator Kaguya.

Momma's Boy: Naruto even calls him out on it, stating that some brat who's still clinging to his mother's side after centuries, perhaps even millennia, of living doesn't have the right to compare himself to the countless shinobi who shaped history with their lives.

Off Model: In early anime episodes (and some in later ones, it seems to vary by who does animation) Black Zetsu has orifices besides eyes. In the manga, Black Zetsu half never had any of those.

Pride: You might expect from creature which dare to call themselves "creator history".

Puppeteer Parasite: Black Zetsu, being the manifestation of Kaguya's will, is able to take control of a person's body. he possesses Obito's near-dead body to fight Kakashi and Minato. This backfires because to Black Zetsu underestimated, willpower Obito.

Put on a Bus: Black Zetsu disappears for a while during the Fourth Shinobi World War.

"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Madara when he betrays him for believing himself to be the savior of the world when he's really no better than Obito. Speaking of Obito, when he is finally dying from Kaguya's bones, Black Zetsu mocks him for being a constant failure who will die without anyone mourning him because he made everyone his enemy at some point.

Sarcastic Devotee: Although he appears genuinely loyal to Kaguya and praises her as being an almighty goddess, he's not above referring to her with a light jab or two.

Sealed Evil in a Can: Or a moon in this case. Naruto makes sure every bit of Kaguya is sealed this time upon her defeat and personally goes back and punches him into the moon as the Ten-Tails is being sealed.

Smug Snake: Despite being very smart and cunning, he firmly falls under this trope at the moment revival Kaguya. Due to its tendency towards underestimating his opponents, constantly love to gloat even in the moments when was more logical keep silent and his arrogance, Kaguya gets re-sealed about ten chapters later only this time he will be sealed together with her in order to he never was able to revive her again.

Spotting the Thread: After Kaguya gets fooled by Naruto's shadow clones, he quickly deduces how to locate the real one among them. Naruto gets around this by deliberately moving his truth-seeking orbs to one of his clones, making them think it's the real one.

The Starscream: Royally screwed over a gigantic number of people because of the ripple effect of his master plan, most of all Madara, whom he brutally murders in a very Karmic Death to use as fodder for Kaguya's resurrection. She appears to be the one and only person he's loyal to.

The Strategist: Black Zetsu recorded centuries of wars after his master was sealed, meaning he has more knowledge of the art of war than anyone. This is shown when he suggests separating Naruto and Sasuke to prevent their sealing jutsu and when he insists on killing Naruto when absorbing his chakra is shown to be riskier. As such, Kaguya relies on his advice when her battles go south. However, he still gets outwitted by Naruto several times because he mostly watches from the sidelines rather than actively experiencing the heat of battle.

Underestimating Badassery: For creature which manipulated the entire ninja world he very often to underestimate their opponents: He underestimated willpower Obito, and this is a man who was able to subdue himself Ten-Tails only through willpower. This in turn allowing Obito to return control of his body. Also underestimated intelligence Naruto that allowing him several times outwit him. Finally he underestimated the whole team 7 thinking that Kaguya cope with them herself. He was wrong.

Villain Ball: After activation Infinite Tsukuyomi Black Zetsu backstabs Madara and to use as fodder for Kaguya's resurrection but also he showed that he knows about the seals on Naruto and Sasuke's hands that will seal Kaguya if they touch her together. So why he just not wait until Madara, will win them and already after this using him for Kaguya's resurrection. After all, the Madara better chance to beat them because he much more experienced in combat than Kaguya and he does not need to worry about these seals unlike Kaguya. But apparently he just wanted to gloat.

Villainous Breakdown: When Naruto comes back to make sure he can't cause any more trouble in his weakened state, Black Zetsu tries to put on a bravado that Naruto is just another part of history he created. Naruto responds that he neither owns nor created ninja history and that someone who has to cling to his mother (Kaguya) isn't much of a ninja to begin with, before punching him into the sealing moon.

You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He does this with Madara. After activation Infinite Tsukuyomi he backstabs him and tells him that the moons eye plan was itself a lie, it's real purpose was to resurrect Kaguya and Madara now made himself the perfect vessel for her return.

A Mad Artist and Marionette Master notable for being very impatient. Before being destroyed by Sakura Haruno, Sasori was usually found maneuvering inside a large, hollow puppet called Hiruko as a means of transportation. It crawled on the ground and featured a scorpion tail that - like most of his weapons - was doused in poison.

His grandmother was Chiyo, who taught him how to master puppets in order to divert his attention away from his absent mother and father (who were killed by The White Fang of Konoha, although Sasori did not know this - he was told by Chiyo that they were on another long mission). He developed a technique to convert living humans into puppets, thus creating puppets who could use jutsu. Kidnapped the Third Kazekage and converted him into one of these puppets, somewhere along the way converted himself into a puppet, and then fled the village to subsequently join the Akatsuki, where he was partnered with Orochimaru, with whom he worked well together with. After his partner's betrayal of the organization, Sasori sent Kabuto as a spy to infiltrate Orochimaru's ranks and retrieve information.

He was then paired up with Deidara, a fellow art enthusiast. The downside was that they had conflicting views on art, Sasori for "eternal" and Deidara for "fleeting". They frequently argued over this concept, even amidst confrontation with the Leaf ninja sent to retrieve Gaara. Sasori fought his grandmother Chiyo and Sakura, eventually using his own puppet body in battle. He was killed by being pierced in the heart by the first two puppets he ever created: replicas of his Mother and Father.

His body serves as Kankuro's newest puppet, but Kabuto has used Edo Tensei to revive his spirit as well. In the first fight of the Fourth Ninja War, Kankuro defeats Sasori, telling him how he should not be a puppet to Kabuto. Sasori, moved by this speech, dissolves from his temporary body, giving Kankuro his Mother and Father puppets and telling him to take care of them.

His hobby was remodeling his puppet collection.

Favorite phrase was "Eternal beauty"

24-Hour Armor: Hiruko was the first puppet to be shown being used by Sasori in the series, as both a weapon and an armor, and as a means to eliminate the puppeteer's weakness of being a separate and exposed target. As Hiruko was one of his favorite puppets, Sasori adorned it in Akatsuki attire for nearly the entirety of his tenure in the organization. Because of this, only certain members like Orochimaru, Deidara, or relatives like Chiyo knew Sasori's true face while others like Zetsu and Kabuto had no idea that Hiruko was not his actual body. While within Hiruko, Sasori speaks through his puppet in a deeper voice.

Ambition Is Evil: Sasori's ambition was to become an exquisite piece of art himself by turning his body into one of his own puppet works. Sasori adhered so strongly to his belief that true art was ever-lasting that he even went as far as to conduct human experiments on himself and other ninjas.

Anatomy Arsenal: He's long since turned himself into a puppet, and has outfitted himself with a variety of weapons.

Antagonistic Offspring: A variant. His parents died when he was young, and he was raised by his grandmother, Lady Chiyo. She's one of Sunagakure's longest-serving and best respected elders. He's a murderous sociopath who killed the Third Kazekage and helps kidnap the Fifth. In the end, there is a lethal confrontation between he and Chiyo.

Awesome, but Impractical: His bladed shoulder blades allow him to fly via the propeller motion they make and can function as swords or a giant powersaw, but because they're attached to his hips it's hard to fight with them properly due to the angle they're situated at.

Badass Boast: "Since I don't like waiting or making other people wait... I'll end this quickly."

Body Horror: As if 95% of his body being a Creepy Doll weren't enough, the 5% that's left is an unnamed part of his original human body that is as purple as his poison.

Bond Villain Stupidity: When he defeated Kankuro he why that had left him alive noting that without a cure to the poison, Kankuro will dead. This ultimately allowed Sakura create an antidote to his poison, that in turn became the main the cause of his defeat from Sakura and Chiyo.

Conservation of Ninjutsu: Applies to his ultimate technique. The less puppets he controls the better he controls each one. Justified by having more attention to spare as the numbers dwindle.

Creepy Doll: After The Reveal of this being why he hadn't aged, the anime wastes no time raising the creep-o-meter a few notches.

Cyborg: Kinda, seeing as he's a living puppet with what's implied to be the real Sasori's heart controlling it.

Freudian Excuse: Suggested to some degree that the death of his parents and his attempting to replace them with puppets caused him to turn evil, but Chiyo suggests that the Sand Village teachings caused it.

Heel Realization: After being revived, Kankuro's words caused him to renew his faith in humanity again.

Hypocrite: He gives Sakura a lecture on how worthless emotions are to a ninja and how above he is on them, despite actually not having overcome them himself when he decided to take the final blow from his puppet parents, choosing to die in the embrace of his "parents".

Immortality Immorality: Believes that by becoming a puppet one can attain eternal life, and has some fairly twisted views on human life. He was, rather poetically, the first of the Akatsuki to get taken down in season two.

Making a Splash/Playing with Fire: Thanks to fire and water sealed into scrolls, he's able to use the guns in his puppet body's hands for at least those two elemental attacks. First flamethrowers hot enough to melt rock, then water streams intense enough to cut or smash through it (the latter is Anime only).

Man in the Machine: Sasori's first appearance is actually just his puppet Hiruko, that he spends his time inside.

Marionette Master: He created the puppets used by Kankuro, and was the most skilled puppeteer in the world while he was alive.

Master Poisoner: His poisons were nigh-incurable to the best of the Sand's medical corps.

Meaningful Name: "Sasori" means "scorpion". Sasori's Hiruko armor runs on all fours and has a bladed tail, Sasori uses Poisoned Weapons, and he uses a scorpion as his symbol on the puppets he created before his defection.

Memory Gambit: Using a jutsu, Sasori would seal the memories of his spies and they'd infiltrate an enemy, performing spy activity over a long period of time with no memory of the procedure. Once Sasori canceled the jutsu, the spy would once again remember their mission as sleeper agent and would supply him with info.

Not So Stoic: After he reveals his puppet body, he becomes considerably less calm.

Older Than They Look: He's 35 years old but his puppet body, which he created 20 years ago, looks like a teenager.

One-Man Army: Literally. Sasori used his Performance of a Hundred Puppets to bring down a small country.

Orphan's Ordeal: Sasori grew up in a sad and lonely environment due to the absence of parental love. When introduced to the art of puppetry by his grandmother, Chiyo, he grew a little happier. He eventually created puppets in the likeness of his parents, but when he realised that the puppets couldn't give him the actual love that he desired, he became cold.

Sasori: Kankuro… I want you to have my "Mother" and "Father" puppets as well… and when you die, pass them both on… to the next generation.

People Puppets: Indulges in this after being revived by Kabuto's Edo Tensei due to a lack of usable puppets at his disposal. He combines this with Deidara's explosive clay to turn an incapacitated ninja from Konoha into a suicide bomber.

Teen Genius: At 15, he was already a prodigy in the use of puppets within the Sand Village and created several puppets that the village used. He also kidnapped the Third Kazekage shortly after leaving the village around this age.

Villain's Dying Grace: Before dying, as a reward to Sakura for defeating him, Sasori informs her of a spy that he had within his former Akatsuki partner Orochimaru's ranks, and tells her to meet him ten days from then at noon at the Tenchi Bridge. Kabuto speculates this was a subversion and Sasori's real aim was to pit two of his enemies against each other so at least one would get killed off.

A Mad Artist and Mad Bomber who likes Stuff Blowing Up. The former student of the Third Tsuchikage, Deidara has mouths in his palms which shape explosive clay, along with a stitched mouth on his chest. He defected from his village of Iwagakure and worked for various anti-government terrorist groups because they readily supplied him with chances to show off his "art". He was forcibly recruited into Akatsuki by Itachi, and hates him and the Sharingan for his dismal defeat.

His first partner was Sasori, with whom he frequently argued about what "true art" was (Sasori vouching for 'eternal' art in the form of puppets, and Deidara siding with 'fleeting' art in the form of his bombs). He single-handedly captured Gaara during the first arc of Shippuden, but not without having his arm crushed and subsequently ripped off by the Kazekage's sand, while his other arm was sent to another dimension when confronted by Kakashi. He managed to successfully fight against the entirety of Team Guy with no arms.

He was later revived by Kabuto's Edo Tensei, joining Kabuto in finding Killer Bee and Naruto, mistakenly believing he killed Sasuke with his final attack. During the Fourth Ninja World War he was teamed with Sasori and Shin, Sai's adopted brother. He was defeated by Sai and imprisoned by Kankuro until the Edo Tensei was ended.

His hobby was experimenting with explosions.

Favorite phrase: "Art is an Explosion!"

An Arm and a Leg: Has one arm ripped off in the battle with Gaara, and the other teleported to another dimension by Kakashi. We see later that he's had both re-sewn back, though they never give an explanation of how they were recovered.

Deidara: Look at those fools. They have no appreciation for art. You have to feel art. And true art… is an EXPLOSION!

Batman Gambit: He pulls one to capture Gaara: he realizes the sand Gaara is attacking with is the one he has the most control over, so when Gaara rips Deidara's arm off he has the living clay inside said arm crawl inside this sand. He then sends a huge bomb towards the Sand Village so Gaara has to send most of his sand to withhold the blast, forcing Gaara to block his next attack with his best sand, has the clay he left inside that sand crawling into the center of Gaara's sand sheld, then detonates them.

Also making another one in battle with Sasuke: He uses "C4" to kill him but he also knows that he Uchiha and may use genjutsu so that it checks neighborhood through his second eye which he coached against Sharingan and creates a clay clone to lure Sasuke that allowing him use "C4" from which Sasuke can not dodge.

Berserk Button: People not giving his "art" the awe he feels it deserves. He can appreciate a fellow artist with a different philosophy, but Itachi and Sasuke drive him insane. The fact that Itachi effortlessly tricked him into near-suicide the day they met doesn't help.

And same goes for calling his art a rip off... That's a sure way for a blast off Pokemon Style without the glimmering star in the sky.

Brilliant, but Lazy: Despite his power being instantaneous, he likes to take things slow, something that in itself is conflicting with his ideal of short-lived beauty.

He does however get defeated in the shortest amount of time compared to the other Akatsuki.

Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Serves this role in both Original Flavor and Zombified Akatsuki. He doesn't care about his leaders' cause, nor does he have one of his own besides spreading his "art", and is one of the less serious members overall.

Fatal Flaw: Pride. It's to the point where he self-destructs to trigger a reaction of awe from Sasuke (he fails).

Faux Affably Evil: He just as loud as Hidan and more flamboyant, yet he is stated by Pain to have joined Akatsuki only for shits and giggles. In fact, Deidara was forced to join Akatsuki after losing a bet against Itachi. It doesn't make him any less of an example of this trope, however - while really desperately trying to pass off as a "cool" villain he has to put up a humongous effort to hide his rampant insanity. That is, until the very end.

Deidara: Tobi, even a Buddha loses patience when insulted a third time… One more word and there'll be no doubt about the cause of your death.

Hypocrite: Expresses hatred of people with Kekkei Genkai, especially Sharingan users, claiming they're just "blessed with good genetics". Later, it's revealed that his explosion techniques that he is so proud of are actually Explosion Style - a Kekkei Genkai.

In fairness only half of his technique is a Kekkei Genkai; the actual explosive chakra. The ability to infuse it into clay is part of a Kinjutsu he stole from his village, so his actual Clay Style is not a bloodline technique, it's something he created using one and a forbidden jutsu. So while he was "blessed with good genetics," Deidara didn't stop there and took it a step further.

Indy Ploy: He prides himself with these, as it correlates with his belief that true art is a momentary concept.

Kick the Dog: He luring Naruto into fighting him by confirming Gaara's first death.

Major Injury Underreaction: He takes to an extreme, even knowing that he could probably get his limbs replaced by Kakuzu or use it as part of his plan. Gaara rips his arm off and he merely grins, Kakashi sends the other arm to an alternative dimension and he barely even acknowledges it.

One-Man Army: He was a hired bomber who regularly compromised secured areas prior to joining the Akatsuki.

There Is No Kill Like Overkill: He can summon all of his clay and use his "C4" attack, creating a massive clay golem in his image that scatters into countless microscopic bombs that, he claims, will dissolve any living being in range to dust and the most funny he can do this a few times in battle.

Übermensch: He believes that his ninjutsu is a work of art that should inspire others for its short lived brilliance, while every other ninja does not put nearly as much pride in their techniques.

Unknown Rival: He can't stand the Uchiha siblings' cooler-than-thou attitude and utter indifference to his "art". To him, It's Personal. To them, he's an annoying idiot. He spends his fight with Sasuke trying to provoke some kind of reaction, while Sasuke just wants him to give up Itachi's location. After his self-destruction and revival, he learns that Sasuke not only survived, but still doesn't think any more of him.

Kakuzu

"Hidan, anyone with a brain would know that the world revolves around money!"

Kakuzu is a Nigh Invulnerable and almost immortal Bounty Hunter who cares only about money. He is old enough to have once fought the First Hokage, and can make his body as hard as stone and extend his body into thred-like tendrils. The source of his immortality is his ability to incorporate other peoples' hearts into his body, extending his lifespan and allowing him to use their elements. Paired with Hidan due to his habit of killing his other partners, he captured the Two-Tailed Cat and attempted to go after the Nine-Tailed Fox, but was crippled by Naruto's newest Rasengan variant, and killed by Kakashi. He was revived by Kabuto's Edo Tensei and sent to fight alongside Kinkaku and Ginkaku, but was sealed.

Body Horror: What his body strings do, and create five large beasts that fire powerful elemental attacks from his back that contain one of his five hearts each. Oh, and he has two One-Winged Angel modes by recombining with those beasts.

Bounty Hunter: He annoys Hidan by collecting the corpses of their kills for various underworld bounties. The video games indicate this was his occupation before he joined up with Akatsuki.

The Brute: He and Hidan fulfill this role for Akatsuki during the early part of Shippuden, although he's more of a Genius Bruiser. He's also The Brute for Kabuto's Akatsuki zombies.

But for Me, It Was Tuesday: After meeting up with Izumo and Kotetsu, the two ninja he held helpless while Hidan killed Asuma, Kakuzu merely remarks:

Kakuzu: Sorry, pal. I tend to forget about chump-change shinobi when I'm done with them.

Chrome Champion: One of his more frequently used abilities is to turn his skin into stone to protect himself or give himself a Power Fist.

Combat Pragmatist: Because Hidan is immortal, he doesn't have to worry about Friendly Fire from Kakuzu. The two of them exploit this by having Kakuzu attack with large-scale jutsu while Hidan pins the enemy down.

Deadpan Snarker: Asuma decapitates Hidan and when Hidan tries to talk Kakuzu into bringing him his body, Kakuzu instead takes his head by its hair and carries it over to the body, under loud protests from his partner, stating that Hidan's head "is lighter". He says this with a completely straight face after having just razed a building with his bare fists. Later, when Hidan gloats about having killed Asuma as if it was no big deal, Kakuzu points out that Asuma did cut his head off. Hidan is not pleased.

Death In All Directions: Many of his attacks do this, which makes Hidan an ideal partner because he doesn't have to worry about accidentally hitting him.

Energy Absorption: Combined with Organ Theft. His stolen hearts grant him an physical capacity and levels of chakra well beyond an normal 91 year old(even for Naruto standards) would have and most probably extended his lifespan.

Exotic Eye Designs: Green iris. Maroon sclera. It may or may not be related to the Body Horror above, since unusual eyes designs aren't exclusive to people with kekkei genkai in the Naruto universe, as Kurenai proves.

Four Is Death: Kakuzu harvests the hearts of the victims he kills, and his special ability is Four Hearts Jutsu, with which he prolongs his life by adding four hearts to his own.

Freudian Excuse: Was once a very loyal shinobi, but after his village locked him away for years after a lifetime of loyal service for failing an impossible task, he stole a forbidden technique, killed some of the elders and left, deciding to believe only in money from now on.

Genius Bruiser: Collectively, he and Hidan are more or less The Brute for the Akatsuki. This doesn't stop Kakuzu from being very bright, even outsmarting Shikamaru on occasion.

Glasgow Grin: After his mask finally comes off, seen better after his resurrection.

Greed: He's the banker of the Akatsuki and greedily takes his opponents' hearts.

Hypercompetent Sidekick: He is something of this to Hidan. They're partners and thus of equal standing, but while Kakuzu is a calculating, forward-thinking, highly competent tactician who tries to accomplish goals in the most pragmatic way possible, Hidan is a psychopathic, blood-crazed moron who relies on his immortality to compensate for his complete disregard for caution and inability to even acknowledge his limits, but he's not invincible and thus very easy to incapacitate enough to take him out of the fight. Without Kakuzu there to think for him and rescue him from his bad decisions, he would have been taken out a long, long time ago.

Informed Flaw: While he is repeatedly described as having a Hair-Trigger Temper, the closest he ever comes to losing his cool on-screen is taking a single swipe at Hidan for his repeated mocking of his love of money, only to immediately shrug him off and go back to being stoic. For someone with such a big chip on their shoulder, he puts up with a surprising amount of annoyance from enemies and allies alike.

Only Sane Man: His intermittent fits of berserk rage notwithstanding, he's among the more realistic and collected members of Akatsuki.

Organ Theft: His method of immortality. He rips out the hearts of his enemies, up to five at a time, and stores them within himself. All five have to be destroyed to finally put him down.

Our Angels Are Different: The masks on Kakuzu's back correspond to the four heads of the Living Creatures of Judeo-Christian Mythology. Likewise, they also correspond to the symbols of the four Evangelists, and are arranged on his back in the same order as the Evangelists were traditionally depicted.

Shout-Out Theme Naming: All of his unique techniques are named (and pronounced very similarly in Japanese) after Mobile Suit Gundam mecha used by Zeon in the One Year War, with meaningful kanji replacing the phonetic characters. (e.g., MSN-02 Zeong -> Jiongu -> Earth Grudge Fear; this is Kakuzu's forbidden "body of threads" technique, and the Zeong was a mobile suit that could detach its arms on wires for ranged attacks.) Complete list: Jiongu, Domu, Zukokku, Atsugai, Gian = Zeong, Dom, Z'Gok, Acguy, Gyan

Soul Jar: He can't die unless all of his collected hearts are destroyed.

Super Strength: Even by Naruto standards. He manages to wreck an entire building in a single blow.

Hidan

"As the other dies, their agony radiates through my body, and living through it is pure ecstasy!"

An immortal ninja who wields a Sinister Scythe, Hidan is murderously insane and follows a Religion of Evil. Foul-mouthed and arrogant, he hates his partner, Kakuzu just about everyone. Fuelling his immortality is a gruesome ritual that can transfer injuries to his enemies, and being immortal means he can survive even losing his head. He kills Asuma with this power, and in revenge Shikamaru dismembers him and buries the still-speaking pieces alive. However, it seems that he's still not dead: Kabuto is able to bring back to life almost every defeated member of Akatsuki except him. However, Kabuto does create a snake clone of him in the Chikara Arc special by harvesting some of the old Hidan's DNA, but when the snakes composing the clone's body burn out their lifespans, the clone crumbles into oblivion.

Ax-Crazy: The most openly deranged and bloodthirsty member of the group.

Back from the Dead: Played with in one filler arc. His 'real' self is still buried at the Nara shrine, but Kabuto manages to recreate an entire Edo Hidan from some of his cells. The fact that even the neo-Hidan's personality matches the original is played for laughs.

The Chew Toy: Official Title in Akatsuki. Kakuzu when enraged would kill his partners. Solution: Give him an immortal one. An obnoxious, swearing, religious nut one. A strange amalgamation of stress reliever/punishment apparently. Considering Hidan is the newest member of Akatsuki outside of Tobi and Deidara's backstory shows Akatsuki intentionally recruits specific ninja to their ranks, willing or not, Hidan might very well have been headhunted specifically to give Kakuzu a partner he couldn't kill off no matter how hard he tries.

Combat Pragmatist: Because he's immortal, Hidan doesn't have to worry about Friendly Fire from Kakuzu. The two of them exploit this by having Kakuzu attack with large-scale jutsu while Hidan pins the enemy down.

Confusion Fu: He swings around his scythe on a long cord, making it fly around unpredictably, and thus making it tougher to block.

Crippling Overspecialization: He is immortal, this should make him powerful, but it doesn't. He only has one real power, which requires him to ingest someone's blood after cutting them, then create a ritual circle, stand in it, and he becomes a living voodoo doll for that person. He uses it to kill Asuma. Once this technique is analyzed, there are a few weaknesses. If Hidan is removed from the circle, the effect ends. Furthermore, while immortal, he can be chopped up to remove the threat he poses. Finally, he has to attack someone with melee in order for the technique to work. A user of long ranged combat who is powerful enough to disable him will have no problem doing so.

Cruel and Unusual Death: Well, subverted in that he cannot die, but being blown up to pieces and buried while alive certainly is cruel and unusual.

Dumb Muscle: Incredibly stupid, with no sense of tactics or strategy and a penchant for just charging into situations without thinking. Hidan would have been taken out many times over if not for Kakuzu's brains.

Even Evil Has Standards: He doesn't condone blasphemy or attacking priests. Although he stil willingly does the latter when he thinks he can get a good fight out of it.

Fragile Speedster: He's incredibly quick and agile, but his style doesn't lend itself to close combat and he's physically quite fragile and easy to incapacitate. His immortality and Kakuzu's ability to sew him up prevent him from experiencing any real consequences of this, but it's safe to say that without the latter, he would have been in his current situation a long time ago.

From a Single Cell: In the Chikara anime filler arc he is brought back by Kabuto. However, Kabuto used a cloning method different from the Edo Tensei resurrection. Instead, he uses a lake to regenerate the clone.

Hot-Blooded: He never thinks things through, and charges into trouble without a second thought.

Hypocritical Humor: Once cracks a joke about his enemies attacking clergymen. Of course, his religious dogma is Thou Shalt Massacre Thy Neighbor.

Immortality: Hidan cannot die. Blood loss will not stop him. Beheading will not stop him. Being stabbed through the heart will not stop him. However, his wounds apparently take the normal amount of time to heal, seeing as he has Kakuzu's stitches in his neck for a good while after the fact.

Obligatory Swearing: In many fanlations, less so in Viz translations, to convey his very rude way of talking.

Omnicidal Maniac: He's completely obsessed with killing. He botchered his neighboring villagers because they wanted peace. Afterward he joined Akatsuki for the opportunity to kill as many people as he can.

Sadist: He intentionally strikes non vital areas of his opponent so that he can make them die a "good death". Though he does feel the need to join a Religion of Evil before acting on his sadistic impulses, so at least he feels his sadism needs some "higher" purpose.

The leader of Akatsuki after Yahiko's passing, Pain possesses the Rinnegan, the predecessor to the Sharingan, which allows the user to use all six elements and learn any jutsu. Orphaned by the Land of Rain's civil war, Nagato was raised by Jiraiya, who believed him to be the prophecized Chosen One, alongside his friends Konan and Yahiko, with whom he would later found the Akatsuki. When Hanzo, the leader of the Hidden Rain village, and Danzo, set a trap, Yahiko was killed and in his rage Nagato summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, crippling himself in the process. Believing his suffering had caused him to become enlightened and his power caused him to become a god, Nagato took on the alias of Pain and outfitted six corpses, including Yahiko's, with chakra receivers and used them to take over the Hidden Rain village. Pain wanted to use the Tailed Beasts to create a weapon of mass destruction which can be used to put an end to war. Each of his six (actually seven) different bodies possesses a different skill, and can't be defeated unless all of them are killed at once. The bodies are all ninja Jiraiya fought as he wandered the earth. His first physical appearance has him engaging his old master in battle in the Hidden Rain Village until Jiraiya killed one of his bodies and sent it back to Konoha (along with a toad bearing the message "The real one isn't there"), but he was eventually overwhelmed and killed.

He quickly replaced the missing body with a new one, and arrived in Konoha in the hopes of capturing Naruto. After his bodies engage - and in some cases, are defeated by - Konoha's villagers, he rounds them all up and uses Shinra Tensei, an ability which nukes the city. He fights the newly-empowered Naruto in a long drawn out battle that bumped the HSQ up a few notches. Finally, Nagato is defeated and after accepting Naruto's ideals about peace, uses a jutsu to revive many of the Konoha ninja he killed, dying in the process. However, Kabuto resurrects him later with Edo Tensei and pairs him with a similarly resurrected Itachi, who helps him move around. They engage Naruto and Bee, where it is revealed that he can use all of the Six Paths' jutsu without the bodies, and nearly kills the pair until a liberated Itachi intervenes and seals him with Susano'o. He is eventually revealed to be a descendant of the Uzumaki clan, just like Naruto.

His hobby was practising ninjutsu.

Favorite phrase: "The stars are hidden on a rainy night". As a child, it was "Growing up".

Affably Evil: If you don't stand between him and a Jinchuuriki, he won't harm you. Even then he´s always polite and doesn't kill unnecessarily unless it can lure out Naruto

Ambition Is Evil: Surprisingly inverted: Him wanting to change the world is viewed in a very positive light. How he wanted to change it is where he gets into trouble.

Awesome, but Impractical: Pain's interrogation methods. He uses two main abilities to try to find Naruto, one of which can instantly read the mind of those it touches. On it's own, this is perfectly practical. His other, however, can kill anybody who either lies to him or refuses to answer his question. Meaning anybody who actually knows ends up dead... This does spare him the trouble of having to look up misinformation, though.

His mind reading would be practical if it didn't rip out the person's soul, making it essential that the person had outlived his/her usefulness.

This does explain why he pissed off Naruto once to do so, and complimenting him as a fellow student.

Not to mention that he briefly shows an uncharacteristic expression of awe ("The nine tailed fox' power... is amazing...") when he fought the six tails, like he was feeling the thrill of fighting a worthy opponent for the first time.

vs. Jiraiya: Though Jiraiya was able to defeat three of his Paths, when Pain brought out all six he lost quickly. Pain does concede that if Jiraiya knew the secrets of his abilities he would have had a sizable chance of beating Pain.

vs. Konoha: Fighting an entire village and only temporarily losing one expendable Path puts the assault square into this category.

vs. Sage Naruto: The first time ever that the Six Paths had faced a challenge, and that quickly disappeared after Deva Path's powers returned.

vs. 9-Tail Naruto, Killer Bee & Edo Itachi: Not so much a Curb-Stomp Battle as a massacre until Itachi unleashed Susanoo and used the one thing that had a chance of beating him in that situation.

Cynicism Catalyst: He and Konan became villains after the death of their best friend Yahiko.

Nagato: You think you're the only ones who matter. You think you can put off death. But that peace made you foolish and thoughtless. If you kill someone, someone else will kill you… this hatred binds us together. I want you to feel pain, to think about pain, to accept pain, to know pain.

Dark Messiah: Nagato has the same goal of bringing about peace as Naruto does. His methods, however...

Nagato: We are both but men, driven to seek vengeance under the banner of justice. However… if there is justice in vengeance, then justice will breed only more vengeance… thus forging more links in a chain of hatred.

Defeating the Undefeatable: Nagato, or more specifically the Six Paths, had never encountered someone who could fight him on even grounds until Naruto. To be fair though, he did admit that Jiraiya would have kicked his ass if he had known the workings of his techniques.

Actually, Villain Sacrifice. Before Naruto came Pain fought and defeated the entire Hidden Village. And Nuked It. Naruto came with a Super Mode and the strongest warriors of the Frog village, and was defeated. He fought with the Nine-Tails all out and was technically defeated. Even the last Path needed all the juice Naruto had left to take. And when Nagato met with Naruto face-to-face he could use all the Paths' Powers, had Konan with him, and enough chakra left to revive the entire Village.

The Dragon: For quite a while, everyone thought this guy would be the Big Bad, but he was actually working as a figurehead for Tobi.

Dragon with an Agenda: He for Tobi since his final plan completely contradicts plan Tobi so that perhaps he had planned to betray Tobi after gathering all Bijuu (though while knowing all the details of his plan and also that Tobi revealed that the Gedo Mazo is a vessel for the Ten-Tailed Beast, success this betrayal very doubtful).

Drama-Preserving Handicap: Nagato, using the Six Paths of Pain, gave Naruto the fight of his life. Using his own single body after being resurrected, is an even more massive badass despite his crippled legs, as he managed to overwhelm Naruto (in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode), Killer B (in perfect jinchūriki form), and Itachi (who, this time, lacked the weakness of low chakra reserves and eye side-effects). Who knows what would have happened if this guy could've used his legs?

Dueling Messiahs: His fight with Naruto. Pain wanted to bring peace by creating a horrifically destructive jutsu (which would get used), thereby horrifying/scaring everyone into peace for a long time. Once time lets people get over it, they will use it again, after this there will be a very long period of peace, rinse and repeat till the end of time. Naruto wanted to achieve peace in a much more moral yet still unexplained way that he still probably hasn't come up with.

Evil Counterpart: Naruto's third one. He's even a fellow descendant of the Uzumaki clan.

Even moreso to Minato. Both of them were Jiraiya's student with rare Story Breaker Powers who'se best showing involves curb stomping a big shinobi army, both were assumed to be the child of prophecy, both became leader of their village & genuinely loved their village. The only difference was Nagato willing to cross any line to save his village & having wider worldview beyond a single village.

Funny enough he is one to Kushina Uzumaki as well, making him this trope for the entire family.Like Kushina, he was an Uzumaki displaced by the destruction of their village. They both posessed exceptional chakra & were given rare powers that are associated with legendary Rikudou Sennin with purpose of using them as tools for somebody else's work. While Kushina found love & respect from everyone in Konoha, turning her into an idealist, Nagato faced constant warfare & death, becoming a cynic. They even died during separate invasion of Konoha, one pulling Heroic Sacrifice while other pulling Redemption Equals Death sacrifice.

Evil Cripple: Nagato lost full use of his legs after saving Konan from Hanzo's fire attack.

Evil Red Head: Yahiko, and all of Pain's bodies (even the ones that weren't in life) except the bald Asura path, have orange hair, while Nagato has dark red hair.

Freudian Excuse: He wants to make the ultimate weapon of mass destruction and bring suffering to the entire world because he saw his parents killed by enemy ninja and grew up orphaned in a country constantly embroiled in both civil wars and war with other countries. When he, Konan, and Yahiko lead a peaceful organization, they're attacked by Hanzo, backed by Danzo, both of which have brought a small army with them thinking the group are revolutionaries. When Nagato is left with the choice of killing Yahiko, the leader, or watching Konan be killed, Yahiko grabs Nagato's knife and kills himself with it.

From Nobody to Nightmare: While he is a descendant of the Sage of Six Paths and Uzumaki clan, he was born to a normal family of non-shinobi people, as well as a Street Urchin who stole food to survive. Who would've thought he'd grow up to be the "leader" of the Akatsuki, killing Hanzo who defeated the Sannin, and reducing the Leaf Village to a crater and creating a mini moon in his acts as a Physical God.

A God Am I: Wielding the Rinnegan and believing the traumas he experienced in his youth had enlightened him to the true meaning of pain and suffering, he considered himself a deity, and believed he had evolved beyond a mere human being.

A God I Am Not: During his battle with Naruto however, he reveals that this attitude is simply a farce on his part. He actually does not think that he's a god. In fact, he repeatedly tells Naruto during their battle that he is only a man, and as such, he cannot find a perfect solution to the problem of the 'Cycle of Hatred' in the shinobi world.

Good Is Old-Fashioned: He viewed Jiraiya and his beliefs in peace as childish because they would lead no where.

Grievous Harm with a Body: He pulls a weird one on Naruto: after he impales Fukasaku, he throws the corpse at Naruto, which distracts him long enough for Pain to pull him in and pin him down.

Handicapped Badass: Even after Kabuto summons him, he is unable to use his legs to do more than stand up, which leads to his sealing by Itachi.

Hero Killer: Killed Jiraiya, Kakashi, Shizune and Fukasaku, and nearly killed Hinata and Choza. Then he brought them all back to life, except for Jiraiya.

He Who Fights Monsters: Initially Akatsuki sought to work with Hanzo but they were betrayed and Yahiko was killed as a result. Afterwards he sought Hanzo out and killed him off and everyone associated with him in order to establish himself as casting God's judgement.

Hive Mind: The Six Paths of Pain technique which controls six bodies that are in constant communication, and it's justified in that they're being controlled and coordinated by one person. Each path is also granted a different power...

Deva Path: Which has limited control over gravity through pushing and pulling things, as well as the ability to create what is best described as a miniature black hole.

Hoist by His Own Petard: Preta Path puts Naruto in a hold to drain away all of his chakra. Since he can't move anyway, Naruto takes the opportunity to gather up more sage chakra. Draining that turns Preta Path into a frog.

Hollywood Cyborg: Asura Path's powers allow it to transform and create a variety of cybernetic weapons.

Hydra Problem: The Animal Path can summon hounds that split when cut or struck.

Ill Guy: He is crippled and confined to a mobile throne. Even after being resurrected he has to rely on Itachi to support him.

He tells Tsunade to not be haughty. Considering the fact that he believes himself to be a god and that he's divine... Well, arrogance is blinding, isn't it?

He condemns the system of five hidden villages because their "peace" is built on a set human lives despite the fact that Nagato himself is going to bring a lot more of human lives the sacrifice for the sake of what he calls "peace".

Insane Troll Logic: All his arguments about his plan to end all the war are absolutely illogical. His plan was to create a weapon so powerful it could destroy an entire country in a single attack. Thus ending all wars out of fear of the weapon's use and ushering in an era of true peace. But Pain knows that people will eventually forget about all that and just go back to fighting so they used his weapon again and this will allow future civilizations to experience the terror of destruction themselves and revert to peace for short periods before doing it all over. So he claims that wants to create true peace though any adequate person would say that his plan will not lead to anything resembling "true peace" at all. But apparently he just can't think of a better plan.

It's Personal: Because Konohagakure was partly responsible for the tragedies in his life, he held a great deal of animosity towards the village. Although Jiraiya's influence improved his opinion of the village during their time together, he eventually came to believe that Konoha profited from the tragedies of others and hated it and his former teacher.

Kick the Dog: His nearly killing Hinata to demonstrate a lesson of pain to Naruto.

Leitmotif: "Girei", which perfectly captures everything about his character.

Lightning Bruiser: The Deva Path. When you can keep up with and beat up on both the Four-Tailed and Six-Tailed manifestations of the Nine-Tailed Fox while simultaneously taking whatever it can dish out, you deserve the title.

Nagato himself shows just how broken the Rinnegan is after he gets brought back with Edo Tensei. He curb-stomps Naruto's new Super Mode, Killer Bee, and Itachi at his peak physical condition simultaneously. The only reason he lost is Itachi had what is quite possibly the one ability that could beat him. And even then the only reason said ability even connected was that Nagato was both controlled by an outside influence and seemed to be too busy WTFing at the fact that someone actually broke out of Chibaku Tensei to dodge it coupled with the fact that he couldn't use his legs properly either, and the fact that the one thing that would compensate, Nagato's sensing, wasn't even known by Kabuto.

The Man Behind the Curtain: The Six Paths of Pain are insanely powerful, but they're just puppets. Nagato is extremely weak physically, extremely skinny, and has difficulties to walk unaided.

Mighty Glacier: Nagato is able to use all abilities of the Pain Rikudo, making his main body one the strongest individuals in the Naruto universe. But due to his almost immobile legs, he cannot dodge by his own; that is one of his greatest weaknesses he has. That's why he let the Pain Rikudo fight.

Moral Myopia: He lampshades this to Naruto. Naruto says that after killing his mentor, sensei and village he has no right to claim he desires to bring peace. Nagato instantly asks then how come only Konoha has the right to talk about peace, when they killed his family, friends and destroyed his village. Naruto couldn´t answer.

Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Naruto was down for the count and demoralized... until Pain almost killed Hinata, which resulted in the Nine-Tails coming within a hair's breadth of being completely unsealed.

Only Sane Employee: He seems to be the only member of Akatsuki that cares about the organization itself, and is constantly telling the other members not to piss off each other and not make light of their comrades' deaths. Justified in a way seeing how he was one of the co-founders of the original Akatsuki.

The Paralyzer: He manages to paralyze Naruto's movements somewhat when he stabs him with multiple control rods.

Person of Mass Destruction: In general, Pain is a one... er, six-man army who can level villages on his own. In particular, his Shinra Tensei technique. It's also been shown that he is perfectly capable of being a one-man army on his own, since he is the Six Paths, and can use the abilities better than through People Puppets.

Pride Before a Fall: When he has Naruto pinned down and impaled with six chakra draining rods to prevent movement. Instead of simply capturing him right then and there, he stabs Hinata in a way that would make her bleed out quickly without immediate medical attention. Turns out those chakra draining rods are no match for six tails of the Kyuubi's power, and his trump card is no match for eight tails. Pain snatches defeat, but also some redemption, from the jaws of victory because of nothing but his ego.

The same can be said of his annihilation of the Hidden Leaf Village shortly beforehand. Despite having already won the battle and gotten what he wanted (the location of the Kyuubi jinchuriki), Pain insists on physically destroying the entire village before leaving, expending significant chakra to do so and severely straining himself. It's entirely possible that, had he not been weakened by this effort, he might have been strong enough to succeed in his capture of the Kyuubi. And it's particularly notable considering that, up until this point, despite his repeated A God Am I declarations, Pain had demonstrated a very realistic evaluation of his own abilities, putting careful thought into his strategies and averting Explaining Your Powers To the Enemy to great effect. In both the above instances, he did what he did to make others know pain, showing how important that motivation is to him.

Squishy Wizard: For all the power the Rinnegan gives him, with his horribly mangled legs he's not going anywhere unaided.

Start of Darkness: He lived in a state of constant war, as his homeland was the battleground for all the bigger countries' wars. For years, he was subtly manipulated Tobi. Then, his parents were killed in front of him. Eventually, the death of his dear friend Yahiko and his subsequent crippling drove him to share his Pain with the rest of the world.

Start X to Stop X: Pain grand plan is to get people to see first-hand the horrors of fantastic nuclear warfare and make war much less likely by virtue of mutually assured destruction. He flat out states that his plan is a stop-gap measure, and will not work to secure world peace beyond the lifetimes of the people who saw it in action. He expects them to resume fighting and nuke each other once they've forgotten how terrible it is. And eventually revert to peace for short periods before doing it all over again.

Story-Breaker Power: There's a reason fans accuse him of being a God-Mode Sue: His Rinnegan gives him ridiculous amounts of chakra that rivals the Nine-Tails, a virtually unlimited number of summons, and the ability to use all five elements (in addition to another two), level entire cities, create miniature moons, read minds, rip souls from peoples' bodies, and revive the dead all while being in a wheelchair.

Superpower Lottery: Of all the superpower lotteries in Naruto, Pain hit the absolute jackpot. In chapter 602 of the manga, it's revealed that he was actually given his eyes by the Big Bad, Madara Uchiha. He still hit the jackpot, but more by virtue of being one of the few related to the Senju bloodline that he didn't hate with a passion.

This Cannot Be!: He loves saying it. The same Shinra Tensei that destroyed the entire home village was rendered useless by Naruto twice, leading to that phrase. Naruto, while in his six-tailed fox form, not only blocked it with a massive amount of chakra, but he reflected it, hurling Pain into a cliff 2-3 miles away. He also resisted the attack a second time after coming out of his rage... using a hundred shadow clones. Pain's final resort to containing 6-tailed Naruto didn't work. Naruto broke out, with Pain saying "I can't believe it." upon seeing him in his skinlesseight-tailed state.

Took a Level in Cynic: After Yahiko's death and more losses, he came to believe that the world could only understand peace through the mutual understanding of pain.

Too Powerful to Live: The guy levelled an entire village on his own and resurrected hundreds of people. It's implied that had he not expended most of his chakra fighting Naruto he would have survived the usually fatal after-effects of the latter and been able to do it again. Coupled with his Heel–Face Turn thanks to Naruto, and...

Tragic Villain: He lost his parents because two incompetent Konoha shinobi thought they were combatants and not civilians, his best friend kills himself to save him and Konan, and his dog, Chibi, was killed by a stray explosive when he was a child. Once his past is expanded upon, he becomes a far more sympathetic character.

The Unfettered: A villainous example, as he's willing to do anything to achieve peace.

The Unfought: Subverted. Nobody ever fought Nagato himself during the Pain Arc, but he's revived by Kabuto using Edo Tensei, allowing him to have a proper battle against Naruto.

Utopia Justifies the Means: He want end all wars by harnessing the power of the tailed beasts to make a weapon of mass destruction that could destroy a country. If a war was started with one side lacking ninja, they would turn to Akatsuki, who would wipe out the entire opposing nation. After this, most countries would be too scared to start a war.

It's also a partial subversion: Pain knows that people will eventually forget about all that and just go back to fighting. Planning to leave it for future generations, Pain believes that the weapon will allow future civilizations to experience the terror of destruction themselves and revert to peace for short periods before doing it all over again.

Villain Ball: During his climactic fight against Naruto when he has Naruto at his mercy, he proceeds to blow up Konoha and then critically injure Hinata right in front of him instead of just taking him to the Akatsuki. Naruto snaps and gives in to the Nine-Tails, which proceeds to kick Pain's ass.

Visionary Villain: Nagato seeks peace just like Naruto does, but his party to getting there is a lot darker and bloodier.

Violence Is the Only Option: He sought to show the world the meaning of pain by using an ultimate weapon to deter future wars, by means similar to "mutually assured destruction", only then would people understand each other and begin peace.

The War to End All Wars: His plan was to create a weapon so powerful it could (and would) destroy an entire country in a single attack. Thus ending all wars out of fear of the weapon's use and ushering in an era of true peace. Of course, he's also cynical/realistic enough to expect that this won't really last as people begin to forget how terrifying the weapon is, war will flare up again, and the weapon will be used to enforce peace, over and over…

Simply showing the 6 paths of Pain is a spoiler, given Jiraiya fights and defeats only 3 bodies.

Well-Intentioned Extremist: His goal is essentially gaining world peace by using the threat of essentially nuclear warfare in order to frighten people enough to fight wars.

Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He was witnessing his parents being killed when he was still a child. Though he did get revenge by activating the Rinnegan and killing the two shinobi who were mistaken as assassins. Nagato became an orphan, finding companionship from Yahiko and Konan, and was taken in by one of the Legendary Sannin, Jiraiya, who took him and his friends in and taught them the ninja arts so that they could protect themselves and each other. This all went downhill as the group was locked into a Sadistic Choice that resulted in Yahiko's death, following which Nagato slaughtered a good number of the opposing force at the cost of his health. Nagato then obsessed with finding a method to establish absolute peace: whatever brought him into the Big Bad's clutches, it led to him demolishing a village full of people and leading a one-man (well, six or seven) assault against Konoha.

Nagato: You are an odd kid… You remind me of myself when I was young… I couldn't believe in what Jiraiya believed in… nor believe in myself… but you chose a different path. In you I can see another future. I… will believe in you…

Konan

Konan

The only female in Akatsuki, and the last to be revealed. Konan uses origami-based powers. As a child she was orphaned by the Land of Rain's civil war and trained by Jiraiya. She was one of the founding members of Akatsuki, along with Nagato (Pain) and Yahiko, and Yahiko had feelings for her. After Yahiko was killed she became Pain's lieutenant, calling herself "God's Angel". She helped Pain kill Jiraiya when her old mentor came searching for intel on Akatsuki's leader, and accompanied him during his invasion of Konoha. After Pain's death, she sided with Naruto and quit the Akatsuki. She tried to prevent Nagato's corpse from ending up in Tobi's hands, but died in the process.

Action Girl: Eventually shown to be one of the strongest female characters in the 'Verse, given that she very nearly kills an enemy that took the Fourth Hokage a lot of effort to even land one hit on. He had to rewrite reality to escape death, and left the fight without an arm and a functioning eye.

Creepy Monotone: Except when she's yelling at Nagato for being too reckless.

Cynicism Catalyst: She and Nagato became villains after the death of their best friend Yahiko.

Dark Action Girl: Although her powers are not overall as strong as some of the other members of Akatsuki, she still has some very deadly tricks up her sleeves.

Dark Chick: Of the Akatsuki. The somewhat detached, right hand to the true leaders of the organization. Her role is to be more on support and reconnaissance, though she eventually gets a chance to demonstrate her deadliness. She's the most normal of the Akatsuki, not having any particular appearance quirks, fixations, or sociopathic tendencies, and is driven out of a genuine belief that they'll make the world better, and out of the memory for her lost friend. She's almost more of a regular Chick on the bad guys side.

Konan: Yahiko and Nagato did what they wanted to do. They were never your pawns! No matter what happened to them, they both fought for their own ideals! And that's why their will has been passed down! I won't let you ruin it!

Heel–Face Turn: Subverted when examined closely enough. Konan was only allied with Akatsuki, which is very different from being on their side. She was only ever on Nagato's side and nobody else's. His Redemption Equals Deathis a Heel–Face Turn, but as far as Konan is concerned she never switched sides, since her "side" was Pain. Since Pain chose to throw his support to Naruto, she's supporting Naruto now.

Konan: Nagato believed in you, so I believe in you, too.

Heroic Sacrifice: God knows she tries. Her first attack against Tobi was an attempted suicide attack. He ended up saving her too. A "thank you" is in order.

Lady of War: An elegant and stoic kunoichi fond of turning into origami butterflies and forming angelic paper wings. She makes Tobi lose his arm and part of his mask, and literally killed him with the Paper Angel Technique which contained 600 billion explosive tags.

Let's Get Dangerous!: Granted, being in Akatsuki should have been the first clue. But not even Tobi realized how tough she could be when she wanted to. He still beat her, but he had to warp reality to SURVIVE.

Oh Crap!: It is her face when she realizes that Tobi survived her trap.

Only Sane Man: Along with Kisame and Itachi, she is generally the only member who consistently acts in a rational manner.

Punny Name: One of her techniques, kami no shisha no jutsu is a pun off of her "Angel" epithet. Phonetically, it could be read as the "messenger of God technique," but the kanji instead reads "paper-person of God technique."

Satellite Character: Take away Yahiko and Nagato's influence on her and what do you have left? A near-emotionless woman with paper powers who likes to do origami.

Yahiko

The founder and original leader of Akatsuki, until he sacrificed himself to save Konan from Hanzo. He believed Nagato was the Chosen One, and so sacrificed himself to spare him from making a Sadistic Choice. His body was later used by Nagato to make the Deva Path, the most powerful of the Six Paths of Pain.

Born into the war torn land of Ame, Yahiko was orphaned like so many others. Forced to fend for himself, he soon met Konan and Nagato. They were forced to work together to survive, but became close friends under Jiraya's tutelage.

Dead All Along: After seeing Konan and The Six Paths of Pain, Jiraiya briefly believed that the rumors of their deaths weren't true. It turns out that it was only true of Yahiko. His body was used as the Deva Path by Nagato.

Expy: Zigzagged of Mario, the main character of Kishimoto's one-shot of the same name. See, Kishimoto actually wrote Mario back in 1998 before shelving it for 15 years at the advice of his editor, rewriting it for release in 2013. In the interim, Mario's design and basic motives were reused for Yahiko.

Not Official Members

Guruguru

A unique White Zetsu clone who inspired the masked man Tobi persona. Veritably loony, but just as threatening as the rest of the Zetsu. However, he's also the most crude of them all, thanks to a penchant for finding out what making doo-doo is like because he was not born with such bodily functions. And let's just leave it at that. Please.

Adaptive Armor: Functioned as such for Obito during his early days as Madara II.

Badass Longcoat: When he appears during the 4th World War, he's clad in the same type Obito wore prior to it being shredded.

Beware the Silly Ones: Guruguru makes his return after Madara's revival by taking on the entire Alliance with a scaled down version of Hashirama's titanic statue, while still talking about poo!

The Blank: Guruguru has a hollow head with one hollow eye socket, yet it still manages to see through the link it shares with the other Zetsu.

Cloud Cuckoolander: He is talkative and obsessed with bowel movements, and his zany personality inspired Obito's Tobi persona.

Diabolus ex Machina: The sole function of his return was to block the Alliance from fighting against Madara. Even after Karin seems to destroy his colossus and Orochimaru temporarily weakens him by giving Yamato a curse mark, he is shown to be still blocking the Alliance several chapters later. His only other appearance was in a flashback set almost two decades before, and the manga don't shows what he was up to and why he showed up in that exact moment.

Dropped a Bridge on Him: As the Infinite Tsukuyomi is dispelled, he spontaneously crumbles into dust. Only Yamato even knows what happened to him.

Green Thumb: Can merge with the earth and even burrow underground, masking his chakra altogether and allowing him to tunnel around undetected at extreme speeds, and can function as a living suit of armor for a person.

Me's a Crowd: Guruguru is one of 100,000 White Zetsu, although he is unique in his ability to symbiotically bond to a person and augment his power with their own.

No Body Left Behind: When the Infinite Tsukuyomi is cancelled and the Ten-Tails sealed away in another dimension, Guruguru attempts to rebond to Yamato, but crumbles into dust before he can do so.

Spike Shooter: His Wood Release: Cutting Technique projects and fires sharpened branches and roots that, if they impale a person, grow into and through their body.

Super Toughness: Guruguru takes a hit from Karin's Chakra Chains and Suigetsu's Finger Firearms with minimal damage, and even manages to skewer Karin with his Wood Release: Cutting Technique in retaliation.

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